What Makes You Human?
by BlackMagic622
Summary: Naruto and Alex Uzumaki are Faunus children whose parents go missing early in life, raised with Ruby and Yang, they go through life learning the hard way that the world is not a peaceful place. What's the difference between you and me? An extra pair of ears? a tail? is that really so bad? We both laugh, cry, and bleed red when we're hurt, what makes you human? Has Persona elements.
1. Chapter 1: One Big, Happy, Family

Chapter One: One Big, Happy, Family

There was nothing, no people, no land, no sound, just emptiness, all around me. I wandered for what seemed like hours, but could have been days, minutes, who knows how long, until I came across a strange light. As soon as I reached it, it enveloped me, wrapping in a unknown, but loving warmth, like I had been here before. Soon, everything was bright, and I saw a strange man. He had his face covered in some sort of armor, which in the light made his eyes look yellow. He wore a black cloak, gray in the middle, which was zipped up all the way, and separated at his legs. Attached to his helmet looked like long metal straps that went to his feet, and his boots had blades on the bottom of them. He held a staff that held a blade with a blade at the end, in short, he looked like something out of a chunnibyou's wet dream.

"Hello, wandering soul" the man spoke with a deep, but calm voice. It reminded me of Kakashi.

"Who are you? Where am I?" I replied as calmly as possible, trying not to anger him.

"I, am Izanagi, and this, is my domain" he replied with authority. "I have brought you here after death to propose to you a question".

"Izanagi? As in the GOD OF CREATION Izanagi? What could someone as all powerful as you need of me?"

"Your praise amuses me, I am but one of many creation Gods, many of us simultaneously creating life on Earth, and the dimensions that surround it. I, however, wish to offer you, another chance at life, seeing as you died fairly young, I find it would be a waste of human potential to let such a good soul as yours just move on because of one lowly Uchiha".

I stared back at him, both with awe and surprise at this offer, given to me by one of the greatest beings in all of Shintoism.

"What exactly do you mean another chance? Like coming back from the dead, reincarnation? What do you mean by it?" I asked, not wanting to be tricked, as the Gods seem to love to do to humans.

"Smart, not just going for it like a fool. What I mean is that I offer you a chance to relive life, in another world, family and all, look here."

What appeared was another man with blond hair, who opened his eyes and looked just as confused as me, but I was more concerned with the fact that a man I thought dead is suddenly by my side again. I thought to myself 'I really hope this isn't a dream' when I saw him.

"You will repeat life in this new world, and will not remember much of anything until you get older and can accept this reality, once you are ready, your memories of your time in the elemental nations will return, but by that point, they will be just memories, they will not mean much to you". Izanagi said, glancing over, we both nodded and and the man next to me asked:

"We will truly have our family back?" he asked in a no nonsense tone.

"If that is what you desire, then you shall have it. You will start over, I cannot say you will be without hardship, as to be expected, but one day, you will have your family back together, maybe not in the way you imagined, but one day, you will be family again".

The two of us looked at each other and without even a seconds hesitation we replied "Yes". The two of us do not give a flying fuck what happens to us, as long as we get our family back, it does not matter at all.

In a small house in the woods in the Kingdom of Vale, Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, were currently in the loud process of welcoming their first child into the world. They had seals around their small house to keep the noises from being heard, even though they were in the middle of a forest, they still had to be quiet. They had overcome many hardships in their lives as faunus, that's right, faunus. Minato was a arctic wolf faunus, with snow leopard in there as well, with snow white ears and a long bushy wolf tail, while Kushina was a fox/rabbit hybrid with orange rabbit ears that were black on the inside, with a long, orange fluffy fox tail. They wanted to make sure that their children grew up without the discrimination as long as possible. Making the house soundproof from both the inside and the outside made it so no humans knew what was happening.

"C'mon Kushina, you're doing great my love! Almost there!" Minato said as he held his wife's hand as she pushed out their first child with the midwife Mikoto helping them along.

"MINATO I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU! GOD DAMMIT THIS HURTS!" Kushina roared, not relishing the miracle of childbirth at the current juncture, when all of a sudden, she heard a loud noise.

"WAAAAAAAAA!" a loud crying resounded throughout their home as their child had just been born.

"Kushina, Minato, it's here, a healthy baby boy, here you go Kushina".

"Aww, he's so cute, he's got orange hair and everything, I think he'll be one handsome man one day, oh yes you will be" Kushina said as she held her newborn baby, kissing him on the forehead.

"Well, since he has the orange hair, how about we name him Azure? Its complimentary color is orange you know?" Minato suggested, thinking it was clever.

"Why Azure? His last name either way is in Japanese, and Azure comes from French doesn't it?" Kushina deadpanned.

"So? In case you forgot, I was born in Mistral, and one of the primary languages people speak there is French, besides, Japanese is a dead language, so some uniqueness wouldn't be so bad" Minato said, as he picked up his firstborn son from his wife's loving arms.

"He looks like he takes after your faunus genes with these white ears, isn't being a faunus unique enough? I mean even though we can keep him here for awhile, we cannot keep him away from humans forever. If we name this one Azure, then the next one is Japanese, I want one of them to have a Japanese name" Kushina demanded, her motherly instincts already kicking in about having anything that draws even more attention to their child than he will already get.

"Sure thing my love". Minato smiled, leaning down to kiss his wife.

**11 months later…**

"I SHOULD HAVE LEARNED THE FIRST TIME THAT THIS WOULD SUCK, MINATO YOU GIANT PRICK HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME AGAIN!?" Kushina shouted at the top of her lungs, making their eleven month old son Azure wake up and cry, immediately not happy that mommy was upset.

"Just get through it Kushina, you're almost there, Minato-kun, try and get Azure-chan to calm down" Mikoto said guiding her friend through her second childbirth while at the same time trying to deal with the already born crying baby.

Minato picked up Azure from his seat and began rocking him over to his crib in the other room, luckily he calmed down rather quickly, so Minato put him down in his crib, left the room while quietly closing the door and put a silencing glyph up so that he couldn't hear either the imminent crying of his younger sibling or the profanities his mother was shouting. He made it back into the room just in time to see his second son born into the world.

"Doesn't matter how many babies I've delivered, it's still beautiful every time" Mikoto said with a warm smile, she loved the look on the mother's face when they saw their babies.

"Thank you so much Mikoto for doing this for us again, hi baby, I'm your mommy, oh, you are so handsome, just like your brother and your daddy". Kushina said as she rubbed her cheek against the baby's own. The blond baby they had named Naruto right after they found out it was another boy had his dad's blond hair, but his mom's orange fox/rabbit ears, meaning he would grow a tail like hers later as well.

"Anything for you two. Now, I recommend that you two get some rest, as you both have had a long past couple of years, I suggest that if you want a third kid, hold off for awhile" Mikoto said pointing out the hardships of faunus parenting. Faunus babies are like human ones, except they exhibit the behavior of whatever type of faunus they are at that age, because Azure was born with his father's genes, even more so than him actually, Azure was born blind and could not see for the first week. Minato has two types of faunus genes, like Kushina, so they inherit bits and pieces of both. The wolf genes are more dominant, so they take the majority of any noticeable features. Azure was turning out to have both, for instance, he grew a snow leopard tail, pure white with black spots over it, but has wolf ears, meaning for him, he would have a lot of both genes.

Naruto was a fox/rabbit type faunus like his mother, so he would be more than likely be very social, and have large ears, both pairs. Kushina and Naruto's fox genes come from the fennec fox, meaning they could survive easier in hotter temperatures, places like Vacuo, which is mostly desert. Most breeds of rabbit share similar traits, being territorial for one, so it is still unknown exactly what kind of rabbit faunus they are.

"Minato?" Kushina said lovingly.

"Yes, my love? What do you need?" Minato replied quietly, as Naruto was sleeping, much quieter when being born than Azure was.

"Go get Azure, I want him to meet his new brother" Kushina said petting the whisker marks on her new child, both kids inherited them, and she thought they looked adorable with them.

"Sure thing dear" Minato said as he hurried back to the other room where he left his first born son and brought him back to his mommy and new baby brother. Azure could crawl by this point, so when Minato laid him down on top of Kushina, Azure crawled over to see the new face, looked at it with a face that said "What is this thing? What's it doing on my mommy?" so he did what most kids do when they see something they are interested in, they touch it. Azure poked Naruto in the face, which woke the baby up, and instead of crying, Naruto took a good look at his brother and giggled.

"I think they're going to get along just fine dear" Minato said as he proudly watched his sons meeting for the first time.

"I think so too dear"

**About 18 months later**

Azure was now about two years and five months old, born on November 22nd, while Naruto, a year and a half old, was born on October 10th, and they were already inseparable. Alex, who by this point, had lost his orange hair, and turned blond like his father, showed the natural instinct of the over protective older sibling already, growling a little bit if their parents made Naruto upset or got too close.

Right now, they were playing in Naruto's crib, waiting for their parents to come home to play with them some more, Alex could walk a little by this point but he kept tripping over his tail, the bad part about having the tail of a snow leopard is that the tail grows to about the same length as the body to help keep them warm, apparently the same applied to faunus. For the most part, they would just play with the stuffed animals each of them got when they were born, Alex got a blue bear, and Naruto got a green frog. They always had them with them, they just loved how huggable they were, even if they were faunus, they were still toddlers, they like hugging.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a loud bang sounded as Naruto and Alex looked around, confused by the sudden loud noise, when their mom and dad suddenly barged into the room, and picked them up carrying them to another room.

"Minato quick! Put them in the safe room!" Kushina yelled, checking their back, like she expected the front door to come down.

"I am on it already!" Minato said as he moved the crib, rolled the small carpet under it, and revealed a hidden door. He then picked up his two sons, opened the door and put them in the small, windowless room.

"Nobody should be able to get in, alright boys, I am going to need to stay right here for a while okay? You're going to need to stay quiet, okay?" Minato said putting his sons down in a basket large enough to hold them both, and gave them their blankets, Azure had a blanket the same color as his name, with his name imprinted on it, Naruto had one similar, only it was orange, with his own name on it. Minato then climbed out of the room and before shutting the trapdoor said:

"Boys, mommy and I both love you very much, one day we will come find you, and we will be a family again, I don't know when, but we will, I promise".

"Minato! Hurry up, they're about to bust the door down!" Kushina yelled from across the hall.

"Goodbye my sons" Minato said as he shut the trapdoor, and placed a seal on top of it so that for as long as the door didn't break, nobody would be able to find the boys. He then rolled the carpet back over it and then placed the crib where it was before, making it look like nothing was out of place. He then rushed to his wife, who was about to fight the ones breaking the door down.

**A few days later…**

One man wandered around the remains of what was the Namikaze-Uzumaki household, you could only call it remains of a house if you knew what was there before, because now, it was nothing but rubble. The man was tall, around 5'8" and had blond hair, with lilac colored eyes. He was wearing a yellow trench coat that went down to his waist, a white shirt underneath, with black pants.

There were burn marks everywhere, telling at one point, either someone lit the place on fire directly, or it was caused by dust reacting. He seemed to be looking for any sign of life, wondering what had transpired here, that is until he heard the faint sound of crying. He walked slowly, not making any noise until he came across the remains of what seemed to be a child's room, pieces of wood from a crib broken all over the place. The man then pulled some rubble out of the way until he saw where the noise was coming from, a broken trapdoor, a seal paper crinkled up next to it. The man opened the door, and crawled down to see two toddlers, neither one being older than three, but one was crying, probably hungry, from the looks of things, they have been down here for days without food. The other one however was growling at the unknown presence.

Normally, Faunus' diets are molded slightly after the type of faunus they are, both wolves and foxes can go a few weeks without food, but these are children, so they cannot last as long as fully matured ones.

"So you two did make it. Well, I don't know where your parents are, but I am going to take good care of you as their friend. I got two daughters of my own, so having some boys in the house will be good for my sanity. From now on, you two are going to be living with my family, and you are my sons. Most people don't know about you little Naruto, so you should be fine, but it's a bit more common knowledge that Minato and Kushina had one son, so Azure you may not be in such luck, we might need to change your name for your safety".

The man slowly lowered his hand so that Azure could smell him, when he did, he stopped growling, thinking he was good enough to be around Naruto. He then gave the boy a pat on the head, and scratched behind his small wolf ears, doing the same for little Naruto, who for now stopped crying.

"Already so overprotective of him huh? That's good, if you are going to have my daughters as sisters, you will need to be. I got it, since you were defending him so bravely, how about I call you Alex, short for Alexander. It means "defender of man", or in some translations "defender of the people". It's from a language spoken in Mistral, like your other name, so I don't think Minato would mind. Come on, let's get you two back to Patch".

A few hours later at the island west of Vale, known as Patch, Summer Rose was currently watching her daughter Ruby, who was sleeping, and her step-daughter Yang, who was playing with a red monkey she got as baby. Summer really loved Yang like her own daughter, probably because she is the actual daughter of her friend from her old team, consisting of the two of them, her husband Taiyang Xiao Long, and Qrow.

Suddenly, the door burst open, with her husband Taiyang saying "Summer, I'm back!" She rushed over to see that he was carrying two faunus baby boys in a basket, which, normally means one of two things:

He had a hidden mistress, meaning a third women he had a kid with

He thought they were puppies that Yang and Ruby could play with by mistake.

"Taiyang, whose kids are those? She tried to ask as calmly as possible, she saw the dirt all over him, and he was drenched in sweat, meaning he hurried back here.

"These" he said, placing the basket down, "are Minato and Kushina's kids, I checked their home, there was no sign of life anywhere, the place was in ruins, and these two were alone in a secret door. I can't tell if they're alive or not, I didn't want to take the risk of someone not coming for them, the one with a leopard tail is Azure, but I've changed his name to Alex, so that in case people know his actual name, people won't look for him. The other one with the fox ears, is Naruto. Most people don't know they had a second kid, so he should be safe".

Summer looked at the two boys, saddened at the information that two good friends of hers may be dead, and then without hesitation;

"We have to take care of them, don't we?" Summer said fully knowing the answer. Faunus are prejudiced against by humans, so any normal person wouldn't take them, even worse is that these were cross bred faunus babies. Normally, in nature a dog and cat cannot breed, but a dog and cat faunus can. Faunus that are bred like this are looked down upon, even by the faunus, because they say "it doesn't help the cause of humans not thinking we are freaks".

"That's one of the reasons I love you, you have such a kind heart, Summer. I was thinking the same, besides I would like sons, I am 0-2 so far on getting one".

"It'll be hard to raise them along with Ruby and Yang you know, four kids for starting parents?"

"With you by my side Summer, I think we can do it. No doubt in my mind" Taiyang said as he kissed his wife for a small, chaste kiss. Meanwhile, Azure, or Alex, as he will be called from now on, had woken up and crawled out of the basket. He made his way towards Yang, who was hiding behind Summer's leg. She saw him and slowly moved towards him, slightly scared.

"Yang, sweety, this is Alex, and the one in the basket is Naruto, these two are going to be living with us from now on, they're your new brothers". Taiyang said, trying to get her to be a bit more comfortable. Yang was nervous, but got less nervous when she saw him come close and touch her face, a few times, Yang flinched a little, scared by the contact a little, before she saw him smile, at which she just smiled back.

"See? They're already getting along well. Now go get Ruby and introduce her to Naruto" Taiyang said, reassuring his wife, alleviating the doubts she had, as she got Ruby, who was only a few months old and out her in the basket next to Naruto, who immediately saw the face and just touched it, Ruby woke up and looked like she was about to cry, Naruto, seemingly sensing it, put his head down and showed her his ears. Ruby grabbed one, and just held it with one hand, while sucking her other thumb, seemingly liking the fluffiness of Naruto's ears.

"One big, happy family. Right, Summer?" Taiyang said as he put his arm around his wife's waist, happy that their new sons were getting along with Ruby and Yang.

"It may be difficult, and sometimes they the four of them might want to make us pull our hair out, but I think we will be a great family, we owe it to not only the children, but to our friends, wherever they may be" Summer said, thinking that even though the future is unclear, and the path may be rough, as long as they had family, there was nothing the six of them couldn't do.

Pilot Chapter End.

**Author's Note: Well guys, I'm back! I decided to do "What makes you Human" first because I have so many ideas flowing for it right now. This story was made because I absolutely love Naruto The Huntsman by fairy tail dragon slayer. If you are reading this, than I would like to thank you for such a great fanfiction. There is a hidden reference to his story in this chapter, see if you can find it. Please leave comments telling me how I did, follow/favorite, and I will see you guys next chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2: Growing Pains I

Chapter Two: Growing Pains Part I

**Thank you everyone who even read my story, at least 125 views as I am typing this and 10+ followers, which is awesome, thank you guys. This chapter will mostly be about Alex, Naruto, Yang, and Ruby growing up together, and how difficult it can be. I will probably skip showing some things, and I can use them as flashbacks later if need be, but mostly I want to get to around the start of the canon timeline quick, even if I am not following it religiously, that is where most of the plot takes place. So everybody, enjoy chapter two!**

**House Link: ?id=110**

The kids got along very well, which for parents, especially ones that are not experienced, is a blessing in disguise. Alex and Yang were the oldest, Alex by a few months, then Yang, then Naruto, and last but not least, Ruby, and for the first few years everything was a bit more chaotic, but manageable.Because of the sudden 50% increase in mouths to feed, I had to do more classes at Signal to help pay for all the necessities my growing family needed, and I needed to hunt more because food was still expensive, and I had two faunus boys that had meat as a large part of their required diets.

What didn't help was that Summer still had the missions her squad would take every so often, so I was often doing this by myself, luckily Alex and Yang, my two oldest, seem to be keeping the other two in line. It was so much easier when they were all able to fit into a single bed, Alex and Naruto would end up using their tails to help keep Ruby and Yang warm, snuggling up, it was the cutest thing. Now Alex and Yang are getting to the age where I have to think about education for them. First of all, do I send Alex to regular school or not? Signal does not accept kids until at least their 12th birthday, so I have to figure out something for them.

Whatever decision I do make, I have to make Naruto do the same thing, I can't have Alex feeling ostracized because of his heritage, which only recently has he paid attention to. It seems like the boys thought the girls would grow tails and another pair of ears, they don't even know that they're not related to them by blood. I can tell them that they're faunus, but I can't just say that we're not their blood related to them until they get older and can handle that kind of news, that would make them feel even more alone.

It's much easier to make decisions when Summer is around, she seems to always know the best way to handle things when it comes to the kids. She loves each one of them like they are her own children, even if only one of them actually was born because of her. She would read them bedtime stories about great heroes, amazing adventures, and the occasional fairy tale, it didn't matter, they loved every second of it. She spoils the kids rotten with love, I don't know what I would do without her.

Right now, we are at the doctors office to give Alex his regular checkup, there aren't too many hospitals on Patch, so everyone usually just goes to the big one in the center of the island. The doctor is a very nice man, and has training in both human and faunus care, so there wasn't any trouble getting Alex, or Naruto for that matter appointments.

"Okay Alex, let's get started, I am Dr. Gray, now, how old are you" the older, gray haired doctor asked.

"Five years old" Alex replied nervously, he was never good with people he hadn't met before, this is the first time we have used this doctor, so it would be some time before he got comfortable.

"Okay, can you stand over there, and take your shoes off, and we'll measure how tall you are".

Alex took off his sneakers and stood under the strange looking contraption, to him anyways, and the doctor placed a bar down on the top of his head and said:

"45 inches, which is 3'9", you're a few inches tall for your age, which is good, now I am going to have you take your shirt off so we can measure weight and how much fat you have" the doctor said. Alex looked back at his parents who were nodding, telling him that it was okay to do what he said. He took his shirt off, went on the scale, which the doctor said:

"52 pounds, which is a little above average for a faunus of your, but since you're taller than most, it evens out" he said with a smile, which eased Alex's tension a little bit. The doctor did the other tests like blood pressure, body fat, which Alex didn't seem to like too much because it pinched, and just general questions doctors ask about how he is at home, where he should be at for this age, etc. But, the really important news came when the doctor did the memory test, which the hospital has been doing for kids under six for a few years now, all of my other kids did it too, it wasn't just because he was a faunus.

"Okay Alex, for the final test, I am going to have you do a few exercises to test your memory, would you mind going outside for a moment, I will call you back when I am ready" the doctor said.

"Sure thing" Alex said as he hopped off the examination table, and went outside the room.

"Okay" the doctor began, "I am going to be asking him what has changed in the room, like this" he said as he moved the pen he had on his right ear, over to his left, and then took one of the blue push pins holding the poster up behind him, and while holding the poster up, switched it with the green push pin holding the corner under it. I then untied my left shoe, while Summer took one of the pins holding her hair to the side out, giving it to me since she didn't have pockets in her 'combat skirt' as she called it.

I didn't even notice she wore her usual combat clothes, when we had Ruby she wore civilian clothes more often, must be getting used to having four kids I guess. It's a black long sleeve shirt that's red in the center and red and the end of her sleeves, she also wore a white cape that was red on the inside, she alternates this with her favorite red hood that she usually wears, a red skirt with white lines towards the bottom, long black knee socks, red socks on top of that, and black combat boots. She also had her Scatter symbol belt on her, which eventually she was going to let Ruby inherit when she became a huntress. She left her weapons Thorn and Petal at home, seeing as she didn't need them here, bringing them would only make Alex more nervous, he knew she meant business if she had them on.

She put one of her socks up farther than the other and the doctor called Alex back into the room. Alex just sat back on the examination table as the doctor explained the purpose of the exercise, and asked him to point out as many things that are different from before he left the room.

"Okay, you can start anytime" Dr. Gray said as he pulled out a stopwatch and began to time him to see how fast his reactions were.

"Ok, so Daddy's shoe is untied, and Mommy's sock is a bit higher than the other one, oh uh, also, your pen is on the other ear, and those colored things that are holding that poster up got switched" he said in about 5 seconds flat.

"Those colored things are called push pins son, they hold stuff up against the wall" I explained, not too surprised at how fast he got it considering who his parents are, I expected one of the boys to inherit Minato's amazing natural talents, and it looks like Alex may be the one, he does look like him nowadays, same blonde hair color, plus he has his eyes and his facial structure, while Naruto has Kushina's.

The doctor just stood there agape for lack of a better word, very impressed on how a five year old could get all of them right that quickly. He asked that he do a few more tests to which Alex agreed to, so long as it was okay with us, which we do love about the boy, he listens to us, not that the other kids don't, it's just that Alex doesn't complain as much.

"Okay, after going through the results of the test, I believe that your child may have what is known as Hyperthymesia, which is a condition where an individual possesses a largely detailed autobiographical memory. Basically, Alex can remember an absurdly large part of their life experiences.

"Is that like a photographic memory?" Summer asked confused.

"Sort of, a photographic memory hasn't been proven to exist, but who knows, maybe one day, this could evolve into that, although it would require some psychological trigger, but one of the magnitude required to do such a thing is highly unlikely" the doctor said finishing up.

"Ok then, thank you doctor, come on Alex, let's go back home!" I said motioning him to follow.

"Sure thing Daddy!" Alex said as he hopped down, waving back to the doctor, which pleased Dr. Gray, as he smiled back and waved back, then Xiao Long family moved out of the office, shutting the door behind them.

"So that's Minato and Kushina's oldest kid huh? That boy has a bright future ahead of him as a hunter, as long as he can get past the hardest part of being a faunus, he could be just as, if not stronger than the both of them. I hope that wherever you may be you two, that you guys are paying close attention to your sons, they may be able to fix some of this messed up world".

Later at the house

Our home is fairly large by Patch's standards, as it needs to hold six people. It's a three bedroom, two bathroom home with two floors. The master bedroom where Summer and I sleep has its own bathroom, the kids aren't allowed in the room unless we say so, because that's where we keep stuff they shouldn't see just yet, and our weapons. Right now we have the kids all have bunk beds in one room, and the other bedroom is a guest bedroom, usually where Qrow sleeps when he comes over, and since we are on the same team for missions, that's quite a bit. We got a nice loft upstairs and a decent size porch out front, it is all so homey. We also have a garage for any other equipment we need, or if I ever get around to building that motorcycle I want.

We walked in the door and were instantly greeted by the three other munchkins that live in this house, Naruto, Ruby, and Yang. They were sitting on the couch watching cartoons, just like when we left, and Alex went and joined them, he never seemed uncomfortable around his siblings, even going so far as to let Yang or Ruby cuddle up against him with his tail wrapped around them when they take naps. The kids do everything together, and that's just how Alex likes it, he loves them to death.

"I'm going to miss this" Summer whispered into my ear, as she laid her head down on my shoulder while we watched the kids.

"You get another mission? How long?" I asked, knowing full well how long these could take, the kids did too, not that they were happy with it.

"It won't be for a few months, but this mission is important, so they are giving us time we need to train. The mission is to take down Jin Long, once and for all".

That name sent shivers down my spine, this man has killed so many people, faunus and human, that we are still counting. There isn't even an actual photograph of the man, nobody that has seen his face, has lived to talk about it. He is known to the top hunters and huntresses as the most dangerous man alive, and now my wife suddenly has a mission to kill him!? I took my wife to our bedroom to talk about this in private and set up the silencing seals that Minato taught me to use, so that the kids don't think we're arguing.

"Hold on a minute! Why the hell do you have that kind of mission!? There isn't even a clear picture of this bastard and now they suddenly want you to go kill him!? Even with the rest of the team, that's a suicide mission!"

"I fully know well the risks, Taiyang, but think what could happen if we win. We will have brought the man responsible for so much of the world's suffering down. The world would be a lot more peaceful, a world where I don't have to worry about my babies being hurt!" she yelled back.

"That's IF you win, if you don't you WILL die. There is no second chances with that guy, think what would happen if you die, four kids will lose a mother, two of them for the second fucking time! Do you remember that this is the guy whom we assume called the attack on Minato and Kushina's home! We still don't know if they're alive, and it has been three years!" I hollered, trying to talk her out of it.

"All the more reason to do it! I want to kill this guy, he took two of our best friends away from us. All the pain he's caused, all the pain he will cause, preventing that is what being a huntress is all about!" she screamed, holding back tears, then I wrapped my arms around her.

"I know Summer, it's just...I don't want to lose you too. I don't think I could take it anymore after that" I said remembering about my first wife.

"Nope" she simply stated.

"Nope?" What do you mean nope?" I asked, confused.

"I meant what I said, nope. You aren't allowed to just give up, even if I die, that's what we agreed on when I joined the squad. You are a father to four great kids, who will become great hunters and huntresses. In turn, they will create the next generation of heroes, you have to be there, as their beacon of strength. You and Qrow are the strongest men they know, if you lose it, what would the kids think going into the world?" she said giving me a lecture.

"You know, you aren't the easiest person to dissuade you from something once you set your mind to it" I said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Nope, now come on, let's enjoy the time we do have together while it lasts". Summer said taking my hand, I am not happy that she will have to go, but I will support her all the same, that's part of what love is after all.

Several months pass, the new year has just passed, Alex had turned six in November, Naruto had turned five the month earlier, Yang turns six on January 12th, Ruby turns four in March. It was quiet in the Rose-Xiao Long household as Summer was preparing for what would be the hardest mission of her life. Taking down Jin Long, the world's greatest criminal, would not be remotely easy, and she more than likely wouldn't be back for months. She was taking one last moment to make sure she had all her extra ammo, her two short swords sharpened, and was about to head out the door before she heard a sound.

"Mom?" came the voice of Alex, whose ears were twitching a little bit, while he rubbed his eyes, probably hearing her do her last minute checklist before she head out.

"Oh, Alex, what are you doing up so late sweetie?" she said as she went to put him back to bed, before she felt him hug her leg, and wrap his tail around both their bodies. He always did that to the people he loved, and didn't want to leave.

"You're going on another mission right? How long are you going to be gone?" he said trying to be as brave as possible, last time I came home from a mission, I was covered in bruises and scratches, and Alex was scared to let me out of his sight. He really is a momma's boy in that sense, not that I mind.

"I don't know how long I will be gone Alex, at least a few months" I said calmly, but he still looked like he wanted to cry. "But you know something Alex, that's part of being a hunter or a huntress, we're heroes in a sense" I said, trying to convince him I am just like the people from the animes, books, and movies he loves so much.

"Hero? Does that mean you have super powers Mommy?" my adorable son said as he got a small smile on his face. He saw those heroes on tv, and he instantly wanted to be like one, he always had a smile on his face when those kind of things were on.

"Kind of, I dont have heat vision, and I cannot fly, but I do have the most important power of all, bravery" I said with a smirk on my face, cheesy but it helps him understand better.

"Does that mean you're not afraid of anything Mom?" he asked, he thinks I am the strongest woman alive, even if it isn't true, I smile and say:

"No dear, bravery is not about having no fears, it's about having the courage to do what scares you" I told him as he finally let go of my leg.

"Everybody has things they are afraid of, and I get afraid every time I go on a mission, because I might not be able to come back home".

Alex looked scared, perplexed, and didn't know what to say from his look. He knew that there was always a risk that she wouldn't come home, but he never understood why she did it, she always came back hurt, and it looked like she wanted to be home with their family, so why bother risking her life?

"Why do you do it? Why don't you just stay home and play with us? You always smile when you're with us, baking cookies, playing tag, whatever, you always seem happy, why go do dangerous stuff when you can just be happy at home?!" Alex said, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Because that is what being a hunter or a huntress is all about Alex. It means risking your life to protect the innocent, and more importantly, the people you love. You told me you like it when Yang smiles right?" I said, slightly teasing him for the kiddy crush he had on his sister.

"Yeah, she has a pretty smile, and I don't like it when she is upset, same with Ruby and Naruto. I love all of them and you and Dad" he said, slightly blushing, even though he didn't know why, it was still cute to see him be so honest.

"I feel the same way, I love all of you, and because of that, I risk my life, so that I can keep that smile on your face for as long as possible, you are my son Alex, it's a mother's job to protect their kids and keep them happy" I told him as I offered my pinky to him. "How about this? We make a pinky promise, that I will come back okay?"

He put up his own pinky, and interlocked it with mine, this was the ultimate form of trust for six year olds, it's said to be impossible to break a pinky promise, especially if you swear on the almighty book of Log.

"You promise to come home?" as we raised our pinkies higher.

"I will surely try, and I want you to promise me another thing before I head out. I want you to be the man of the house while I am away okay? Daddy has work, so I need you to pick up some of the slack, I need you to protect the members of this house, I need you to be their hero. I also want you to be a bit more sociable like Yang okay? Try to be more friendly to people, be a good boy, and remember I always love all of you" I said as he nodded real fast.

"Sure thing Mom, I promise" as he smiled, we sang the song:

_Pinky promise _

_If you tell a lie _

_I'll make you drink a thousand needles _

_Now pinky promise made_

With that, I put Alex back to bed, kissed everybody on their heads goodbye without waking them up, and walked out the door, determined to come back home.

Six months later (Alex's P.O.V)

It's been six months since Mom left for her mission, and the boat that carried her off to the mainland of Vale is coming back, the group she is with has their own boat, so they apparently traveled to where they needed to go, and left the boat. The boat has been sighted off the port, and Dad told me to go get Mom and bring her home where everybody, including uncle Qrow, were waiting to celebrate her coming back.

I went to the dock where the boats to the mainland came and waited patiently with my hood up. Dad has told me I am what they call a faunus, someone who has extra animal parts, and that a lot of humans didn't like faunus too well, so I had to hide it if I wanted to go. I asked him why Ruby and Yang, or Mom or himself didn't have any, but he just said he would tell me when I was older. I had my Azure colored, as I am told that's the real name for the color, hoodie on that was lined with white fur. I also had black pants and some black sneakers on, the pants were a bit bigger so that I could wrap my tail around my leg without people noticing.

I paced around the area, my patience not lasting long, apparently the boat was telling the dock master what it was doing here and some other grown up stuff I don't understand yet until finally the boat came up and docked, I ran to where there were two soldiers from the kingdom coming out of it. One of them looked at me and asked:

"Who are you looking for little guy?" with a bit of strain on his voice, it kinda sounded like somebody kicked his puppy.

"My mom, her name is Summer Rose" I said proudly, getting a few whispers from the crowd, but my look was locked on the man who cringed when he heard the name.

"Ok, what's your name son? He said as he looked to a guy behind him on the boat, and nodded, which probably meant he told him to go get something.

"Alex" I said plainly, I had gotten better with talking to strangers, just like Mom asked me to, I felt a bit proud of myself whenever I did something that Mom or Dad asked me to do, I felt like I made them happy, which to me, was awesome.

The second man on the boat came back with a small box and a letter to which he handed me and said: "Okay, your mother isn't here, but if you take this letter home to your dad, and this box, it should help explain things, okay?" he asked as he looked at me with an emotion I couldn't describe currently.

I simply nodded and took the box and letter, and started walking back to the house, wondering what could be keeping Mom. As I walked back to the house, I got this feeling that I didn't like, I felt like something was off. Dad said that it was instinct whenever I felt like that, and that I always should follow my instincts. I stopped in the middle of the woods, and I looked to the letter, which was addressed to the whole family not just Dad. I opened it and began to read it, I had been a fast learner for reading, and could do my ABCs, so I could figure out some words I didn't know.

_Dear Xiao Long Family,_

_We regret to inform you of the passing of one Summer Rose, who was assigned on a mission to find a man known as Jin Long._

Passing? Like passing in the hallway or something, I didn't quite get it so I kept reading, it seemed to be more adult stuff I couldn't understand at the moment, until I got to around the last sentence.

_After investigation of what seemed to be the squad's base came, we found no signs of life, we found what was left of Summer, and placed it in this box, we have every reason to believe that everyone is now dead. We are so sorry for your loss…_

Dead. I recently learned that word when I overheard Dad watching the news, and somebody had died. I asked him what that meant and he said, that the person had moved on to the next life, which if someone had died it meant that they went away to another place, and weren't coming back, ever.

My body reacted on its own, as I dropped the letter and grabbed the box, using my little claw type fingernails, I opened the box, and what I saw, was the hood that Mom always wore, she loved this hood, and what was on the inside? Blood, Mom's blood, splatters all around the inside, but something else was on this hood, I felt more and more in danger as it finally hit me.

An overwhelming force flew into me as I felt like I was getting attacked by images flowing inside my head, an older man, and Mom who looked injured, and then suddenly the older man smiled and then, blood. I saw my Mother's death right before my eyes inside my head, and it was something I couldn't forget, but all I could do, was scream.

"WWWWRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!" I screamed and wailed as the ground around me froze, I was losing my mind, I could even see the monsters Mom talked about around me, but all I thought was 'Give me back my Mom!"

Back at the Xiao Long household

The gang was waiting on Alex and Summers' return as Yang asked:

"Hey Dad, when are Alex and Mom coming back, Alex has been gone for a while" Yang said as she worried about her older brother and surrogate best friend, and her mother, whom she had not seen in months.

Naruto interjected when he said "Y-yeah, but Alex-nii can take care of-

"HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWLLL"

The sound of a howl out in the distance made everybody in the house freeze, and Taiyang instantly knew who that was, it was Alex, he only howled when he was upset or scared.

"Yang you're in charge while me and Qrow are gone, we are going to go get them!" as Taiyang charged out the door with his gauntlets on, while Qrow got his scythe and charged out the door, leaving Yang to hold on to her two younger siblings, trying to calm them down.

When Taiyang and Qrow got there, all they could see was a beowolf getting killed as Alex clawed it down. Alex had fallen down unconscious soon afterwards. The two men looked to try to make out what had transpired here, the area surrounding Alex had frozen, which means he may have unlocked his Aura, or even his semblance, all they could tell was that Alex was holding on to something, on closer inspection, it was Summer's hood. Taiyang was rattled with disbelief, not wanting to believe the evidence, until he looked at the letter around Alex's foot. Qrow picked it up and they both read it, and couldn't hold back the tears, Qrow had lost his sister and now his partner, and Taiyang had lost his partner/wife, and now he lost his second wife, and his two sons lost a mother, for the second time! All that they knew was that Summer Rose was indeed dead, and they had no idea on how to move forward.


	3. Chapter 3: Growing Pains II

Chapter Three: Growing Pains II

**Author's Note: I have been informed that since my story switches between First Person P.O.V and Third Person, the person who inspired the story **_**fairy tail dragon slayer**_**, will most likely not read it. I found out after I had already written the chapter, so starting next chapter, which is the final part of three for **_**Growing Pains**_**, this story will be for the most part, in third person, which brings me to my next point, I may need a beta soon, so if anyone knows somebody that would be interested, please PM me.**

My mother was one the three strongest people in my life, and she was very devoted to our family, she was a supermom. Her cookies were dynamite, and she even watched anime with us and played whatever games we wanted to. I loved my mother, I never felt safer than I did when she was around, and what I saw when I grabbed her cloak, I will never forget. The images of my mother's death have been my dream every single night since I found out, I woke up confused in my bunk bed on top of Naruto's, Yang was sitting next to me, so she filled me in, tears in her eyes and everything, however that wasn't the end of the news I received that week, as Dad called Yang, Naruto, Ruby, and myself to his office.

"Ok, listen, I know you three are going through a rough time right now, we all are, trust me, but I have something to tell you all, and I think that I have pushed it off long enough" he said as he took a sip of his Mijiu*. "Summer, wasn't the actual mother of Yang, Naruto, and Alex". That was something I didn't expect him to say, and it was pretty weird.

"What do you mean she wasn't our mom?" Naruto said, kind of mad that Dad would even say such a thing.

"It's not that she wasn't your mother, she was, it's just, she was Yang's stepmother, and you two boys adopted mother".

Ruby spoke up "What do you mean 'adopted' Daddy?" she said, she was the youngest of all of us kids, so she didn't have a slight clue as to what was going on, even when Dad told her that Mom wasn't coming home, she didn't seem to understand, she was upset, but didn't fully get it.

"Well princess," Dad said and as he picked up Ruby and put he in his lap, "when a mommy and daddy love each other a whole bunch, they make kids, and I didn't make them with your mother Ruby, I did have another wife before Summer that gifted me Yang, but Alex and Naruto came from different people, two very good friends of mine".

At that moment, my world stopped again, I had again sudden feeling of unease, and I felt like again guest in my own house, I felt scared. I looked to Yang and Naruto, who both were shocked when they heard the information that we weren't blood related family.

"Not that it matters anyways" Dad said as he interrupted my train of thought. "You all are my kids, Summer and I raised you, no matter who your parents actually are, you are family to me, and I hope you feel the same".

Something clicked in my head just then, as I remembered back to the promise I made with Mom.

_"You are my son"_ was one of the last things she told me, so my uneasiness, while still there, faded a bit.

"Listen, I will talk more about it later, it's getting late, how about you all go to bed and sleep on this, okay?" Dad asked, trying not to overload our brains with information. Yang walked out with a face I had never seen on her before, it wasn't happy or sad, just empty, Naruto seemed a bit more accepting of it, because he honestly just thought as Dad and Mom as them, the parents we grew up having, Ruby seemed okay for now, I stayed behind to ask questions.

"Dad, can I ask a few things?" I asked as Naruto shut the door behind him, leaving just Dad and I alone in his office.

"Do you want to know about your birth parents? Or is there something else?" he asked, he probably guessed I would be somewhat curious.

"Both, but first I want to hear about my parents" I asked with a serious look as I'll ever have. My fists tightened, I was nervous, were they good people, were they strong? Are...are they alive? So many questions fill my head.

"Well, ok, I will tell you about them, but I need you to be a good boy and listen to me, okay? Leave all questions to the end, okay? I still got to talk to Yang after you so I need to not drag this on". I agreed, I was curious if nothing else, to see what kind of people my birth parents were.

"Okay then, first off, their names, are Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki. You get your father's looks from what I've seen so far, but seeing what you did to those Grimm back there when you "lost it", you seem to be getting your mother's temper, long fuse, but once lit it may as well have been dipped in oil, and here is a picture I have of our two teams at Beacon Academy".

Dad handed me a picture of from who I could tell, it was him, Uncle Qrow, Mom, some other lady with long flowing black hair and red eyes, then four other people I had never seen before. Everybody seemed so happy, and they looked so young too, although several things seemed out of place, for one thing, Dad had his arm around the red eyed woman I had never seen before.

"That woman, with the red eyes and the long pretty black hair, her name is Raven, Qrow's sister, and Yang's actual mother, my first wife before Summer" Dad said with a look that looked to me like he was in pain, talking about her probably brings back some memories he doesn't like.

"Is it ok to show this to me, I mean Yang would probably like to hear about her mom too".

"It's fine Alex, besides, she is just outside the door, isn't that right Yang? I know you're there so just come on in and we can all talk, you too Naruto and Ruby" Dad said with a stern tone. He was always good at telling where we were, which made playing hide and go seek no fun, it seemed like he was cheating.

Yang slowly opened the door and it revealed that everyone was at the door listening in, probably wondering why I stayed behind to talk to Dad. They came in and I showed them the picture, and pointed out Yang's mom.

"Wow, she's really pretty Yang, and you look just like her!" Naruto said with a big smile on his face, it's true, Yang was pretty cute, even cuter than Ruby, who is pure adorableness incarnate, so I think when she gets to be a grown up, she'll be really pretty. Yang however, didn't say a word, she just stared at the picture, she looked mad.

"The blond man here, with the redhead here, are you and Alex's parents Naruto" he said as he pointed them out, taking back the picture. "Minato and Kushina were some of the best friends I have ever had, they were some of the bravest, kindest, most hard working pair of hunters in the whole Kingdom of Vale. They also were some of the people who worked for peace between humans and Faunus alike". Dad said with a small smile on his face. "They also were very happy when they called me about you two boys, they were so happy they had you".

I was confused by that last sentence, if they were happy, then were they all this time? Were they dead? Did they abandon us? If so...why?

"Dad" I asked "If they were so happy, where are they? Why haven't I heard about these people until now? Where have they been?" I said, holding back tears for the first time since I told myself when I woke up after I had freaked out reading Mom died. I wanted to be strong, and from what I've seen, strong people can't cry, so that those who aren't strong can feel safe around them.

Silence filled the room, Dad seemed upset he lost his smile, and just sighed "I don't know son, I don't know what happened to them. I had gone to visit them one day to check on them, by the time I got there, your house was destroyed, and there was no sign of them, I found you two in a basket in a secret room under the house. It couldn't have been more than a few days after it happened, but I've been looking for them ever since, the same thing with your mother Yang".

Yang suddenly jumped, snapping her out of her thoughts when Dad called her, and she just asked "What?"

"Just a few weeks after you were born, your mother left. I don't know why she did, where she is, or anything, but I've never stopped looking, I have tried looking everywhere I go for signs of her Yang, she was always very stealthy, so finding her is not easy".

I looked over to Yang, who just looked like she was about to cry, which, being the equal of somebody kicking a puppy to me, needed to be fixed, which is why I wrapped my tail around her, and pulled her into a hug.

"I will help you find her Yang!" I said pumping my fist in the air. She just looked confused as she looked at me saying: "Really?"

"Of course, together, we can do it, besides, we have all the time in the world to find her, and when we do...I'm going to punch her in the gut!" I said with a smile. Dad wasn't exactly happy about me using violence just yet, thinking I was too young, but that's for when I was grown up.

"She left without knowing how cool you are, without even saying goodbye! Right now, she is making you cry a little" as I used my tail to wipe her tears. "Anybody that makes you cry deserves to get hit!" Little did I know that those words would one day bite me in the butt, but for now, they were the best thing I could say to make her feel better when I was just a six year old.

Dad at that point came down to our level and pulled the four of us into a hug, Ruby didn't exactly know too much of what was going on, but she smiled because of it, she just liked hugs.

"I know you may be feeling a whole bunch of different things right now, but just remember this, you four will always be my kids, and I will always be your good old dad, even if blood isn't what ties us all, the fact we love and protect one another makes us family". Dad's final words as he let us go, and shooed off the others and made sure they went to bed, while I waited for him in his office, when he came back, he asked:

"Okay son, what was your second question?" he asked shutting the door, making sure we were not heard. I looked at him, and thought about everything I currently know, and what has happened in the past few days, Mom dying, me being adopted, Yang's mother disappearing, and I said with as much determination as I ever had at that age:

"I want to ask you, to teach me to fight, teach me Chinese Martial Arts, just like you".

Dad just looked back at me, seeing if this was a joke, but he could tell by my face that it wasn't. He just sighed, rubbed his forehead, and thought about how to reply. He was always one for waiting until he thought we were ready to handle it to begin fighting training, between him and Qrow, we could practically learn any kind of fighting style we could want, Chinese Martial Arts covered a lot of ground, and it wasn't even all he knew.

"Why? I know kids usually starting learning the basics around your age, but why now? Did Summer dying make you want to do this? I love you Alex, but this isn't a game, you could get seriously hurt, why you suddenly have an interest in it?" he asked with a stern look.

"Because I want to grow as strong as possible, strong enough to keep my promise to Mom! The last thing I said to her before she left was a promise I made with her, that until she came back, I would keep everyone safe, I want to be able to keep my promise...I don't want to lose anybody else…" as Alex muttered the last part, holding back tears with his fists tightening, trying to be tough.

Taiyang just looked at his son with a watchful eye, carefully deciding on what to do. On one hand, if he got seriously hurt, Minato, Kushina, and Summer would never let him live it down in the next life, but on the other hand, if he didn't at least learn how to defend himself and he got hurt, his punishment might be worse. He didn't need to learn how to wield weapons until he studied at Signal anyways, so if he just taught him some martial arts, it couldn't be too bad right? Taiyang looked into Alex's eyes to see a stern face, full of determination, like the one Minato wore into battle, like father like son he supposed.

"Okay Alex, I will teach you some Kung Fu, I know practically all kinds, so I am going to help teach you for situations, a mix of all styles, and once you get good enough in a few years, you can learn what you want, deal? Also, for now no weapons, we'll worry about that when you're older and I don't want someone inexperienced to handle them at such a young age. It will be hard, but I don't want to hear you complain okay? Complain, and I am done, and you'll wait till you get to Signal for any form of training, okay!?"

"YES!" Alex yelled as he pulled his adoptive father into a hug. "I promise I'll work real hard, so that this family can stay safe" he said as he let go of his dad, and put his fist up, getting a fist bump back, Alex dawned a grin that Taiyang hadn't seen the entire week.

'Well, I guess not everything is as bad as it seems, eh Summer?'

**xBlackMagicx**

For the next two months, I trained with Dad four days a week, like I asked. At first, it was hard, I had to get really flexible so that I could kick higher, it still isn't anywhere near Dad's level, but I am improving. After stretching, we would run for an hour, and whatever distance we covered in that time, we wanted to beat it the next time. Dad also taught be some basic punches and kicks, nothing special. He told me that if I wanted to become strong, that I had to master the fundamentals, which apparently is a big word for basics. Naruto said he didn't want to be left out, and neither did Yang, so Dad started them out too, Ruby was too young, and so she usually would just watch.

Naruto was learning Taijutsu, which means that is fighting without a weapon, it's what Dad called a "Japanese" fighting style, which apparently Naruto and I both are half Japanese. He wasn't exactly great at it, but he did better. Yang took up boxing, or something similar, she usually just gets into her own rhythm and punches the dummy hard, she always gets more aggressive than she is usually. I don't know what's bothering her, but she gets so edgy when we train, but fine everywhere else. I have also noticed she has been looking for things about her Mom, there isn't much but pictures of her, she didn't live on Patch for very long before she left, so she hasn't had much luck, although, she has said recently that she found something that might lead to a clue, and to not tell Dad.

We kids have been getting even closer since Mom died, and I think in a way, it all helped us become an even stronger family. It is kind of sad to think that I'm not Ruby's big brother, but I spoil her just the same, reading her stories with Yang, playing with her when she wants to, and letting her cuddle with my tail, although she has been doing that with Naruto more often recently, which I don't mind, she'll always be my little sister in my heart. Yang has always been the one I could talk to about anything, she was my best friend, except for maybe Naruto, so really, and nothing changed there. We did everything together, learn how to read and write, watch anime, we even bathed together when we were smaller, we even sleep together sometimes, when she gets a bad dream, same with Ruby, because even if Naruto's tail is a better blankey, I am a better pillow.

Today however, Dad has taken Naruto and I to what is left of our old home from our birth parents, the house we were born in. Yang asked to stay home and watch Ruby, so she isn't here. As I walked around here, I felt at home, kind of. I was nearly seven at the time, but I felt years' worth of familiarity surrounding me, it was nice.

"For nearly five years, this place was your mother and father's home boys. I want you to know, that no matter what happened on the day they disappeared, that they loved you with all their hearts, all of their being" Dad said to us as he watched over us. "Hold on a second boys, I'm getting a call" he said pulling his scroll from his pocket.

Naruto pointed out to me what seemed like a small hidden room below what was our room. Being the rambunctious and curious kids we were at the time, there was no way we couldn't check it out. I climbed down after him, and what we saw, unbeknownst to us back then, would change our lives forever. A weird looking sword, one that looked like no other one we had ever seen. Dad knew how to use them, and there were some around the house on a rack, kind of like a trophy, even uncle Qrow had a few, but this felt different.

The sword was a longsword, with a tan hilt, with a strange orange end, which had two semi circles emerging from the sides of the end point. The blade was long and was fairly normal, except for a few curves near the bottom, which connected to a strange part of the hilt which had two green gems on the side. That same strange part had an orange circle that connected from the hilt to the very bottom of the blade. All in all, it was the strangest weapon I had seen at that point in my life.

"Alex-nii?" my brother called out to me, as I walked towards the sword in a daze. If I were to describe it now, I would say that I felt I needed to hold that sword, like it was calling me. But as I was about to pick up the sword, Naruto pulled my arm back, snapping me out of my daze when I saw what was in his hand. A letter, but on closer inspection, I saw a familiar name, written in both English and Japanese; Minato Namikaze. Naruto wasn't as good as I am at reading, so he gave it to me.

"_Dear Boys,_

_ If you are reading this, then that means that for whatever reason, your mother and I are gone. So, I wanted to tell you a few things that as a father, I absolutely had to tell you._

_Don't bear grudges towards those who have wronged you, for nobody has the responsibility of treating you well, except your parents._

_Nobody is replaceable, once you understand this, life will be easier when people seem not to want you, or you lose those you love most._

_Life is short, the faster you treasure it, the better you enjoy life._

_Always honor your word, but don't expect others to do the same._

_There is no free way to success in life, if you want something bad enough, work hard for it._

_Always treasure the time with your loved ones, because once you die, you have no idea what's waiting for you on the other side._

_No matter where you are, even if we're a million miles apart, we will always love the two of you, and we will watch over you both forever._

_ Now I know that's a lot, but it isn't even a fraction of what I wish I could say to you, but I will say one thing. That if we are alive, and you want to find us, find a wise old toad Faunus named "Jiraiya". He is the only man we would tell where we are if we ever needed to run. The sword was given to me by an old acquaintance of mine whom I owe a huge favor, so if you ever use it, use it only to protect the ones you love. Here's to meeting again boys:_

_Love, your father Minato Namikaze (and Kushina Uzumaki, your momma :))_

Our mother put that last part in with another color pen, and as I explained some of the words to Naruto, we both began to tear up.

"Naruto" I said to him, trying to wipe the tears off my face.

"Yeah, Alex?" Naruto said sniffling, such a darn crybaby sometimes.

"Let's promise, that one day, we'll find our birth parents, we'll find Yang's Mom, and we'll find whoever beat Mom. Then, once we do, we can give them a piece of our minds! We'll become strong, to protect those we love, and make sure to be the coolest hunters ever! Right!?" I said with a face full of determination, putting out my fist for a fist bump, which became our way of shaking hands or making promises.

"Yeah, together bro!" Naruto replied, with his small foxy grin!

"BOYS!" we heard Dad shout, we both turned, and Naruto looked back at me to see what to do, I looked at the sword for a second before saying:

"Ok, you go to Dad and see what he wants, I will stay come to you later after I take a look at the sword real fast"

"Right. But hurry, he seems angry" Naruto said in a scared tone.

After he left, I suddenly started feeling drawn back towards the sword. I felt almost scared, the atmosphere felt stifling, like I couldn't breathe. I then took a deep breath, and reached for it. Suddenly, the sword began to glow an azure shaded color, and began to change shape. The Japanese text, which I couldn't read the exact word at the time, on the hilt changed into a word I knew, Tsubaki. It means camellia, a flower that can survive harsh cold environments. When the transformation stopped, what was left was a black hilted katana that was around 71 cm (27.9in). I grabbed it, but as soon as I did, it glowed again, and vanished. Before I had time to react, I could hear Naruto and Dad calling.

After climbing out, Dad and Naruto had scared looks on their faces, of which I hadn't seen before, but it looked surprisingly similar to when Mom died.

"Alex, that phone call I just had was uncle Qrow, he went to check on Yang and Ruby, but when he got to the house, neither of them were there, and it looked like they've been gone hours!" Dad yelled in a panic. At that moment, time seemed to slow down again, was I about to lose Yang too? I then looked at my fists, which had started to callus from the training I had started, and shook off those thoughts.

'No. I will not let it happen, this time, I will save them. There must be something I can do! I began sniffing the air, seeing if there was a way that my Faunus nose could pick up their scent, until I found a faint smell coming from the woods.

"I can smell them Dad! They're a few miles through those woods! If we run, we should be able to catch them quickly! Naruto, you help too, the two of us can do better than just me!" We just ran, hoping that we would find them, and that when we did, they would still be okay.

**xBlackMagicx**

Yang finally pulled the wagon to a stop. After hours of walking, while pulling her little sister in a wagon, she reached her destination. She was covered in sweat, cut multiple times from the tree branches and the falls she had while walking, and was hungry, but she didn't care. What she saw before her was hope, an old abandoned shack in the middle of nowhere, but still, it was hope for her. Hope that she could find some clue about her missing mother's whereabouts. Hope that she could find out why she just left her and her father, without even saying goodbye. She put the wagon a good distance away from the shack, and began walking to it, prepared for anything. She summoned up all her courage, and opened the door.

She opened the door and saw nothing, nothing but darkness. She was about to call in to see if anyone was home before she got her answer, in the form of glowing red eyes. Fear showered over her as she stepped back, trying to close the door and run, but was knocked down by the beasts inside. Beowolves had made themselves a home there, and didn't like Yang intruding, although they thought she would make a great snack. Any attempt at screaming failed her as she felt like someone was choking her, barely being able to breathe, before the beast in front raised its claw, ready to strike. Fearing for the worst, Yang braced for impact, closing her eyes out of fear, only, it never came.

When she opened her eyes she saw someone picking her up and starting to run, it was her best friend, Alex. She then saw the beast strike its claw down, and slash him in the side, but he just kept running, and stumbled down before going over to Ruby with Yang still in his arms. He turned to see their uncle Qrow and father Taiyang make quick work of the few beowolves, before utterly falling unconscious from the pain.

**xBlackMagicx**

By the time I had woken up a few hours later, Yang was over my bed again, crying as she hugged my neck when she saw I woke up. I hated seeing her cry, it felt like the worst thing I ever saw, but then I remembered something, I was angry with her.

*WHAM*

I punched Yang right in the jaw, and hobbled out of bed, the injury already mostly healed, and put my hands on her shoulders. She looked shocked more than anything.

"What were you thinking?! Why didn't you say anything to me or Naruto! Do you KNOW how worried I was when I heard from Dad you were missing!? HUH!? I WAS SCARED YANG! I...I didn't want to lose you, like we lost Mom, I tried to be brave but...you're my best friend, I would be so lonely without you! Just please...don't leave me alone like that again". I will admit, for years that was the scariest thing I had ever gone through, losing Mom was hard, but...if I lost Yang, I wouldn't know what I would have done. She just sat there, as I wrapped my arms around her, and petted my head, and rubbed my back, understanding every one of my concerns.

The next few months that followed were pretty normal and quiet, something we all desperately needed. I still can't figure out what happened to the sword, and I haven't told Dad about it either, that was Naruto and my self's little secret. Everything was normal, until we met another Faunus boy a few years older than us.

Naruto and I met him practicing with a bamboo sword in a clearing not too far from our house, and thought something a little devious for kids our age. If Dad won't teach us to use a weapon, how about another kid? One who looked like he knew what he was doing too. We asked him if he could train us, at first he said no, but after seeing we were Faunus like him, he said okay.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and this is my older brother Alex Uzumaki! We hope that we'll get along!" Naruto introduced with a silly fox like grin.

"I look forward to training you two as well, I hope you're prepared, I won't go easy on you" he said with a playful smirk.

"We're ready, um...what's your name again?" I quickly asked, embarrassed.

"Oh right, how rude of me, my name is Adam. Adam Taurus".

**Oooo, Adam gets introduced early. Thank you for the support on the first two chapters, and I hope I have it for many more. Please review the story, I want to hear your opinions so far, the next chapter should be all third person. It should also finish up the prologue and we can move on to the present time within the story, just in case you couldn't tell, Alex was retelling events these events, through his eyes. Also, I do have something for my homage to Monty, so that will be addressed later. His funeral was yesterday I believe, it is hard to say goodbye to such a great human being, but the best way to remember him is by living our lives to the fullest, just like he did every day.**

***A Chinese style of sake.**


	4. Chapter 4: Growing Pains III

Chapter Four: Growing Pains III

For five years, Adam trained Alex and Naruto how to wield and properly use a sword. The boys would run to where they would meet him almost every day to train. He said that it was a skill faunus should know, saying that they should be able to defend themselves. They did it in secret, as Taiyang said no weapons until they're at least ten. But it wasn't just about the swordplay; it was about the friendship they got out of it.

The boys enjoyed a faunus friend of their own, because even after they finished practice, they would play for a few hours, which gave them something to do when the girls wanted to do girl stuff. Taiyang once saw the boys playing, and while Adam gave him a really stern glare, and just felt off to Taiyang, he let the boys have their fun. Adam was their first real friend outside of Ruby and Yang, but of course, not everything could last forever.

The boys could tell that Adam was changing, and not in a good way. He would get more violent, or on occasion say that they should run from their home, because humans could never know how to properly treat a faunus. The boys would reject it anytime they offered, and he wouldn't bring it up for a while because it made them angry, but the signs never stopped. Eventually, it got so bad, that Adam left the island and the boys behind two years ago, to join the group that was causing all sorts of problems in the world, the White Fang.

_Flashback_

"_But Adam! Why are you doing this!? The White Fang have been hurting people all over the place, you've heard the reports and everything, you could get in really big trouble!" Naruto pleaded, trying to understand why his elder friend's decision._

_Adam just sat there for a minute, as he packed what little things he had, being a thirteen year old faunus kid that looked out for himself, he didn't need much. He contemplated who he was talking to, and tried to give him an answer he could understand. If there was one thing Adam learned from hanging out with Naruto and Alex for so many years, it was that they shared a tendency to be a bit air headed._

_ "I just feel that they are the group that closest matches my ideals. I am fine with the decisions they have made. Besides, they offered to give me something I have never really felt before, a place to call home, a sense of belonging" Adam finished, zipping up his bag, and putting it on his back._

_ "Are you really sure about this Adam? You realize you're signing up to be apart of a group of terrorists, don't you?" Alex said, finally speaking up. Alex was the one who understood Adam better, he could understand Adam's thought process a lot clearer than Naruto could, but this was the one thing he couldn't figure out his thinking._

_ "I know the risks Alex, but I want to become stronger, and fight for what I deserve, I can't do that here, with just you two as my only allies" Adam said as he opened the door of his home base for the last 5 years. Looking back, Alex and Naruto saw a very rare sight from their usually serious friend, a genuine smile._

_ "One day, when you guys get strong, I'll come see you, and if you beat me, I may listen to you, but until then, see you later". With that, Adam shut the door behind him, leaving the faunus brothers to their thoughts._

_ "Well Alex, what do we do now? Do we go after him?"_

_ "We do what he said Naruto, we get stronger. It may take years to get to the level he wants, but we've got no choice. If we want our friend back, we've got to meet his standards, and be some of the best in our generation" he replied. Alex knew that Adam was a perfectionist, so getting anything less the best isn't an option._

_ "I think we're pretty strong right now aren't we? I mean we have started training with our Semblances, and we've even gotten a few of those jutsu Dad taught us down pat!" Naruto pleaded_

_ "Naruto, I understand you're upset, so am I, but the both of us together can't beat him right now. He taught us how to use swords! The only other weapons we know how to use are kunai, and that doesn't do much against a katana user with years of experience. Besides, our ninjutsu isn't that great, sure, we were born with the ability to use it, but at our current level, Dad, who wasn't born with the ability to use it, can do several times the amount of damage we can. Also, Tsubaki, the sword that we found years ago, doesn't even open, I can make it appear and disappear at will, but it won't even come out of its sheath! Face it, at our current strength, we would lose. But don't worry, one day, we will get our chance". Alex patted his brothers back, and Naruto got his regular foxy smile back, nodding, he understood what they needed to do, become the best._

_Flashback End_

Around the same time, Alex, Yang and Naruto started at Signal Academy. In recent years, tensions have been growing higher, so Signal allowed children to come starting at 11 or 12 years old, depending on when your birthday was. They were ahead of most of the students in their respective classes, Yang and Alex being a year ahead of Naruto, so things were a bit easier. Things were only a little bit better however.

Because Alex and Naruto were faunus, at first, there were some instances of bullying, but after an incident where the bullies hurt Ruby, that all but disappeared. There was also the problem that because they were faunus, nobody wanted to be friends with them, which didn't bother them too much, because all they needed in their opinion were Ruby and Yang, who were much better than any of them anyways. Both of them had activated their semblances by that point, which made them already ahead of most of the kids in the first three years. At home is where the actual workouts were.

When Naruto turned ten, Taiyang began teaching them about the art of Ninjutsu. It was the ability to manipulate the elements. Certain families, like the ones their birth parents came from, can use this ability naturally, and the elements differ depending on who your parents are and what not. However, not just these families can do it, this ability can be activated by someone who can do it naturally, however, the process, according to Taiyang, really hurts, a lot.

Naruto took after his father when it came to the elements he could use naturally which were fire, wind, and lightning. Alex could use his mother's more naturally, wind and water, but he got lucky and could also use ice. Yang wanted to learn, but Taiyang had forbid it because of the pain it caused would really mess her up at her age. Alex and Naruto could do basic things, but nothing too advanced like Taiyang. Taiyang couldn't teach them too much because his natural affinity was earth, and it's much harder to use other elements when you can't do it naturally.

After ninjutsu training, everyone had hand to hand combat training, Ruby wasn't very good at it, but having two boys in the family to help her do it made things easier for her. Alex and Naruto would train each other with their own styles, Naruto would help Alex with taijutsu, and Alex would help Naruto with kung-fu. Yang, while less aggressive since the incident during Alex and Naruto's trip to their parents old home, still worked hard, and had almost the same physical strength that they did.

Currently however, the boys were relaxing in their room, and Alex was reading a book on myths, trying to figure out the strange kanji he found on his sword seven years ago. Because of his near photographic memory, he could remember practically everything he has read and seen, so he still remembers it like it was yesterday. He had read a few books on myths and skimmed through some others, and found nothing relating to it. Naruto had tried to help him, but he wasn't too much help because he wasn't much of a reader and fell asleep when reading the books.

"AHA! I FOUND IT!" Alex yelled, jumping from his top bunk to the floor, and showed his brother. Naruto just looked at it with a weird look, since he couldn't read kanji as well as his brother; Japanese was a dead language in Remnant, so not many people could actually read it. Alex just looked at him annoyed, since Taiyang had been teaching them both how to read it, and Naruto's mind was probably somewhere else.

"It says Ame-no-Ohabari. I knew when I learned how to properly translate it that it sounded important, so I've been searching for a myth for some time now. It reads "In ancient legends, this sword was used by the deity Izanagi to kill his offspring Kagu-tsuchi or Kagutsuchi for killing his wife after his birth. The body was cut up and created eight volcanoes, and the blood that dripped off the sword created several more deities. It is a totsuka blade, which is a blade that is around ten fists in length, which was supposedly given by Izanagi to humans. No known reasons why are known yet, however, researchers are looking for any clues" Alex read aloud, getting more and more excited with each word.

"So why our father have such an important sounding sword?" Naruto asked curiously.

"I don't know, if we find him, I'll ask. Until then, I would rather try to figure out why I can't use the damn sword". Alex was beyond annoyed that after years of thinking of trying, he couldn't even get the damn thing to budge.

"Well, we have plenty of time bro, but on another note, shouldn't we go see where Dad, Ruby and Yang went? They should have been back from their walk by now, wanna go see if we can catch them on the way back?" Naruto suggested as he got up from his bottom bunk and went to their closet, which contained their current attempts at making weapons.

Alex and Yang had recently started learning how to make their own weapons, as it is a requirement to graduate, they start the process around the time of their second year at Signal, Alex wanted Naruto to learn with him so they could do stuff together, so he started showing Naruto what they had learned, so he would be caught up with him. So far, they were only able to know how to make simple ammo, but they were very fast learners, especially since Alex had the closest thing you could have to a photographic memory, and could remember all the diagrams and proper techniques. All they had currently were two pistols Taiyang gave them when they were ten. It was so that no repeats of 'The Wagon Excursion' (what happened when Alex and Naruto went to their parent's old home). The boys loved to explore, so he made them take the revolvers, so that if they ever ran into a grimm or two, they could take it out easier.

"Sure, how much ammo we got?" Alex sighed, following his little brother's lead.

"We got enough for a full chamber each, so twelve rounds all together, should be enough, but we should ask Dad for some more later" Naruto said, tossing the fully loaded gun in its holster to his brother, who caught it and equipped it to his belt all in one swift motion.

"Show off, Yang-nee isn't here, you don't need to be such a try hard" Naruto said teasingly. If there was one thing he could hold over his brother's head, it was Alex's little crush on Yang. Especially recently, she started maturing in certain areas, and Alex started blushing around her more often, not that she noticed, although it didn't help Taiyang and Qrow teased him too. Especially after the birds and the bees talk that Taiyang had given them a few weeks ago, which for Alex, ended in him storming outside red like roses.

"Oh bite me Naruto, I hear it enough already from the adults, I don't need my own flesh and blood brother doing it too, let's just hurry up and get the others so we can eat, I'm starving" Alex snapped back, heading out of their room, and headed downstairs and out the front door, Naruto right behind him. With Naruto locking the door behind them and their revolvers at their sides, they headed out. As they were about to start the walk, they hear faint sounds of growling, before they heard a horrible blood curdling scream.

"That sounded like Dad! Let's move Naruto!" Alex yelled as he bolted towards the sound of their distressed father, Naruto in tow. The scenery a blur as they ran, they made sure that they were locked and loaded, and stopped when they heard the growling from earlier, only much louder. Beowolves were somewhere in the area, and if they didn't stay calm, it would only attract more. Alex hid behind a tree and looked up ahead to see six of the little shits, young ones too, which meant that they were a whole lot easier to take out than fully matured ones.

"Okay, I see six of them, what I want you to do, is go around quietly, and go help Dad, while I stay here, and deal with these" Alex whispered to Naruto.

Naruto looked concerned for a second, before he remembered who this was, his older brother, who was considered by their uncle and foster father to be a prodigy in the making, an excellent shot, and did pretty well in hand to hand combat, these beowolves didn't even have the bone armor that normal ones had, meaning these were made fairly recently. Naruto just smiled, and dashed off to join his family to help whatever was distressing them, leaving Alex alone with four new targets.

"Ok, let's get some payback!" Alex said as he dashed towards the enemies, the beowolves doing the same. The lead one quickly dashed towards him to mindlessly slash Alex, only to be dodged as Alex barrel rolled to his right and was able to jump in the air and splatter the confused beowolf's brain matter all over the forest floor. Five shots left.

The next two came at a straight line dash, and Alex barely dodged a bull rush by the two, using his tail, Alex grabbed the neck of the one closer and smashed it against the other one, lining up a perfect collateral headshot, three down, four shots left. Alex then decided to come to them and before one of them could even act, Alex shoved a revolver down its throat and blew its head clean off, leaving two with three shots left. Alex then decided to use a little aura and trap the one currently aiming a claw at him by creating a frozen wall of solid ice, encasing the arm of the beast, then used the time he bought to get behind the small beowolf and shoot it execution style. Two shots, one ugly looking grim.

'Ok, just me and you, so how do I do this? I should probably conserve my shots, so it looks like taijutsu is the best option here, oh, I know, I can use my semblance and get close enough to snap its neck...that'll work...I hope'. Alex was starting to get a cold sweat, and was starting to hear gunshots in the distance, Naruto was fighting something, and if he didn't hurry, he might not make it time, so this had to work.

Gathering up his courage, Alex started to run around the beowolf, at first it tried to keep up, but Alex was soon going at speeds that weren't possible for normal people, or grimm to achieve. He was spinning around the grimm fairly quickly, enough to get it dazed and confused, so Alex took his one chance that he saw, he got jumped onto the nearest tree behind it and used it as a springboard to land on its shoulders. This thing was a few inches shorter than Taiyang, and it was trying to bite, so the move had to be done quickly. He used a kunai that Taiyang had given him that belonged to Minato at one point and stabbed the beast in the snout to shut it up, and then pressed his legs against the side of its head, and twisted to the left, completely snapping its neck and killing it. It was a completely risky move, but if you could pull it off, it was certain victory. As soon as the beowolf collapsed, Alex retrieved his father's kunai and headed off to the sound he heard.

"What the heck!?" Alex yelled in a hush tone, trying not to alert the enemy to his presence.

"What...what is the White Fang doing here? We didn't do anything, and Patch for the most part accepts faunus, what could they want with us!?". Alex tried to access the situation, and saw that Naruto had already taken down four of them with his rounds, all non-lethal wounds, but they weren't getting up soon. He was currently doing his best to hold them off with just a kunai. He also looked over to see Yang trying to give Taiyang first aid for what looked like a broken leg, not good.

_With Naruto_

'Shit...outnumbered, out gunned, if someone doesn't come quickly, I am fu-!' Naruto was interrupted mid thought as he was struck down by one of the White Fang grunts that was wearing claws, possibly dipped in poison, because Naruto went down to the ground instantly. The poison wouldn't kill Naruto, but he was out of the fight, the grunt went to finish the job, but Ruby had jumped in the way, and put her arms out to the side, stunning the grunt, not sure what to do about the little girl.

"NO! I won't let you hurt Naruto! If you want to get to him, you have to get to me!" Ruby yelled out in determination and false bravado, she was 11, she was proud that she currently wasn't wetting herself from fear.

"Ruby get out of the way! Don't be stupid!" Taiyang and Yang yelled, but it fell on deaf ears, as Ruby didn't budge, her glare not moving from the grunt. Said grunt was looking back at his commanding officer, who motioned for another guy to come over and do it, one who had no problem killing small children. He held his sword, and was making a motion to stab Ruby.

_Back with Alex_

'Shit! What do I do!? I'm scared Mom! I don't know what to do! Ruby is going to die! What am I going to do!?' Alex freaked out, before remembering the last words his mother shared with him.

"_I need you to protect the members of this house; I need you to be their hero"._

'No! There is no doubt what I have to do I...'

"RUBY!" Naruto, Yang, and Taiyang screamed, scared to see death take another one they loved away from them, only it never came. *SPLAT*

"I WILL PROTECT THEM!" Alex yelled, as he used the power from his semblance to close the distance of at least 30 yards in a second, jumping in front of the blade. It stabbed him in his lower abdomen, and went through to the other side, however, Alex grabbed the blade on the side in front of him to keep it from getting to Ruby. The collective shock from everyone present made it feel like time stopped.

"Alex-nii...why...why did you do that?" Ruby said as she collapsed backwards, starting to cry, afraid that this time, his recklessness might actually kill him.

"Because*huff*I made a promise, I made a promise that I can never go back on, as a man of this house! I will protect you! So don't you cry Ruby, you look so much cuter with a smile" Alex replied, trying not to cough up blood, or even stay conscious at this point. Ruby wasn't the only good one at being brave when there was no reason to be.

'Is this the end? Am I going to die, before I've had a chance to do a single thing with my life, its gone in a heartbeat. Naruto, Yang, Ruby, Mom, Dad, Adam, all the people who have ever meant something to me, its all going to be taken away!' Alex panicked, having almost given up hope.

"**If you wish to change your destiny, then just wish for the power, open thine eyes**" a mysterious voice chimed in Alex's head.

'No, I will not die, I will not die here, I don't know what you are, but give me your strength! Alex yelled in his mind, confirming his resolve, the sounds of a seal being broken were heard.

"**Thou hath opened thine eyes. The time...is now!**"

Back in reality, Alex gripped harder on the sword currently impaled in him, and grabbed his handgun at his side, and pointed it at the grunts face, giving a faint, yet eerie smile, he shot the grunt straight in the face, surprising his family. Alex then managed to break the blade by smashing the blade coming out his back with his elbow, and pulled the rest of the blade out. He then made a motion for what looked like drawing a sword from a sheathe.

Naruto knew this motion; it was how he summoned the sword they found years ago. He looked at his brother like he was growing a second head, the sword had never worked, and he was trying to bluff with ten guys with weapons in front of them!?

"I am thou, and thou art I" Alex said as the sword appeared, but when he pulled on the blade, it opened, finally letting Alex be acknowledged as its owner.

Taiyang however, looked flabbergasted, he knew this incantation, it was the same one Minato used when facing his toughest opponents, it was his ace in the hole, so why did Alex have it? And how does he know the incantation to activate it!?

"I have opened my eyes; the time is now...IZANAGI!" Alex finished as a shockwave of energy appeared out of Alex, knocking Ruby, Naruto, and everyone close to him back a few feet. What was the sword was now replaced with a spear, with a long handle, and a blade about the same length as the totsuka blade it was before. Alex looked at the grunts with a smirk grin on his face, but what was strange, was that his eyes were glowing bluer than ever, and there were line markings covering his face and arms, basically anywhere skin showed.

"I hope you brought your good shoes, because now it's time to dance the deadly dance of death" Alex said before he charged the group of White Fang grunts head on, one slash splattering blood all over the clearing floor, the wounds weren't too deep, but they were at his mercy. The grunts began shooting at him with assault rifles and dust rounds; however, all of them were blocked by a giant ice wall he created. Happy with his handiwork, Alex jumped over the wall and slashed another, and another, before there was just one left, the commander of this little operation. Trying to escape, he threw a grenade at Alex, who never actually seen a grenade, them being quite rare weapon choices, didn't see coming the explosion coming, which blasted him through the ice wall he just created. Getting up rather quickly, Alex took aim.

"You come to our island, hurt my father, poison my brother, scare my best friend to death, and made my little sister cry" Alex growled out, his eyes changing from blue to orange, showing his anger. He took the spear, and aimed it right for the form of the retreating captain.

"If you think I am letting you out of here alive...JUST WHO. IN THE HELL. DO YOU THINK I AM!?" Alex said as he threw his spear with all his might, and with incredible speed, it impaled the White Fang captain right into the tree. Just then, before Alex passed out, coughing up blood and collapsing, the spear turned back into sword form, and disappearing. Whenever Alex woke up, he had a LOT of explaining to do.

When Alex finally did come to several days later, his wounds seemingly worse than previously thought, explained what happened. He told his family about when he and Naruto had found the sword in the ruins of their old home, and how it was never even able to open before that day, and that the power came at big prices. His family just chalked it up to the injuries he got, thinking that it made your body tear itself apart trying to contain that much power. After finally getting Ruby, Yang and Taiyang to leave the room with the questions he could answer done, he was left alone with Naruto.

"Naruto...I think we have to leave the island, and train on our own" Alex began, Naruto didn't say anything, just remembering how pathetic he felt going down in one hit like that made him feel weak, he didn't blame his brother for that kind of thinking.

"They made no problems attacking you and me, which means that we were their target. If we stay on Patch, it is just going to get attacked again. With Dad having a busted leg, Yang barely able to use a weapon, and Ruby still not being too good with one at all, we are sitting ducks. It's October 1st today, after our birthdays, and Christmas should be fine, we just took out all the men they sent here, which means they won't get another group out here for a while, and Qrow should be able to look after the island for a while. New Year's Eve, that's when we leave, if we leave during the night, we can be out of Patch by morning, Dad can't drive until probably Yang's birthday on the 12th of January, so we should be fine".

Naruto took it all in, he knew Alex's main goal for leaving, getting strong, that surge of power was something they both knew Alex couldn't do often, and even if Naruto learned something similar, the toll it would take would be huge. They passed out fairly quickly against what should be cannon fodder for a good huntsman with a weapon, so the fact that they escaped with the skin of their teeth hurt.

"Ok" was his only word spoken, they were brothers by blood, they didn't need much to understand.

"So" he spoke again "What's the plan? We are going to need money right, if we're going where I think we are, we need cash".

Smiling at his brother's ability to go along with his plan, Alex just smiled. They truly were best friends and brothers to the end. "Ok, so here is what I have in mind".

December 31st, that same year

Alex A. Uzumaki Age: 14

Naruto M. Uzumaki Age: 13

The whole house was quiet, and everyone was asleep. The kids had school the next day, Taiyang was still injured, and nobody was celebrating New Years that night. Alex and Naruto however, were putting the final pieces together of their plan. They had left notes with gifts behind for everyone. As they packed their bags, and used the sealing scrolls they had learned to use to secure all their big stuff, they were finally ready to leave. It was sad, but they would return one day, stronger than ever.

Once they had snuck out of the house Naruto moved ahead to do his part of the plan, which was "acquire" a transportation to the mainland of Vale. Alex stayed behind looking at the place he called home for so long, one last time, before heading out. Finally ready, he turned around and started walking, only to be interrupted by a tug at his hoodie.

Turning back around, he received the biggest bitch slap he ever got. Standing there was a pissed off Yang, tears already covering her face.

"What the hell...do you think you can just leave...without even saying goodbye...after everything we've been through, why! WHY!" Yang screamed, crying into Alex's chest.

Alex knew this might happen, this is why he elected to stay behind. He had prepared for this, so there were no tears, he could never cry in front of Yang, not anymore.

"You know, tears don't suit you at all. You're so much more beautiful when you have a smile on your face Yang. I'm not going away forever; it's just for a little while. I promised you I would help you find your Mom, I promised we would become huntsmen together, and I will, but I need to get away from here, I'll only hurt you and the others if I stay".

He hated seeing Yang cry, so, he did what always helped make her stop, and he just gave her a warm embrace. For a few minutes, they just sat there in silence. Words were something you never really needed with a best friend, you just knew everything that they were thinking, and Yang knew exactly what Alex thought. But he on the other hand, was a bit denser, so she needed to make sure he got the message, so she summoned up all her courage and did what she thought she wouldn't ever be able to.

She kissed him; she cupped his face, and right then and there, kissed him on the lips. At first, Alex was shocked, embarrassed, and confused, but shortly, he returned it, right on cue with the fireworks going on in the background to celebrate the New Year. It was both of their first kiss, and it was something to remember each other by for years. It was also a declaration, which no matter what happened, he had to come home, and by returning the kiss, he promised just that.

Pulling back, he gave her a smile similar to that their brother Naruto gave, and said "Happy New Year Yang...and see you again one day" Alex said before he used a ninjutsu technique to transport away, looking like snow blowing in the wind.

After finally getting the transportation to Vale, the ride there was silent. However, Naruto would occasionally let out a small chuckle or smirk, knowing something happened. How could he not with Alex's face being red like roses?

After arriving in the port of Vale's industrial district, the boys finally began to move on to the final stages of their plan, Naruto would go over to the camp of White Fang operatives that they had planned would be there during New Years, with all the festivities, they could move equipment all they wanted without getting caught. Once there, he would use the sleep grenades that Alex had "borrowed" from Signal, after learning how useful grenades were firsthand, he figured this would do the trick.

Alex however, would head over to the police station and report the White Fang and get some reward money.

"Ok, you in position Alex? These canisters will give us a few hours or so, I am going to get started" Naruto said through their radio com.

"Roger that, I am in position, I am about to start, wish me luck" Alex said as he put his best acting face on. He walked right into the police station and there was one guy working, flipping through a magazine, when he saw the young faunus walk in

"Oh, what do we have here, turning yourself in you filthy animal? What you do, steal something?" The cop laughed heartedly, and while Alex was used to it from when he was bullied at Signal, he still found it annoying.

"Oh no officer, I would just like to report that I saw some White Fang earlier, and for some compensation, I would be willing to leave the information of where all 40 members are here, for you to steal all the credit and probably get a promotion" Alex said innocently.

"$50,000 lien good enough mongrel?" the cop thought with money symbols in his eyes.

'What. A. Dumbass' was the only thought the boy had as he gladly accepted the money, and went to meet at the city's airport to meet his brother to get a ride on a bullhead.

After leading the cop to the camp of around 40 White Fang operatives, who were all passed out all over the place thanks to the sleep gas grenades, Alex met up with Naruto at the airport, whom after getting his share of the money, asked one question.

"Okay brother, where to first on our journey to become the best?"

Alex smiled, and showed him a map of Remnant, and pointed to the eastern continent, Mistral. "In order to be the best of our generation, who better to train and learn with than THE best of our generation. Our ship leaves in an hour, at about sunrise, so let's eat before we get on". Getting no deny from Naruto, the brothers look for the closest place that sells ramen in this airport.

_A Bit after Sunrise at the Xiao Long Residence_

Taiyang was angry, no, furious, no, actually there really wasn't a word that could describe the level of anger he was feeling. Sometime in the last six hours, his two sons, had ran away from home. The two boys whom he had trained himself, bonded with, had guy talks on occasion, and the only boys that he would let his daughters be around without a hardcore screening process. When he woke up, he went to the living room to find Ruby and Yang already in tears, and his two boys nowhere to be found.

Upon closer inspection of the house, Alex and Naruto had used silencing seals on the bedrooms, the same seals he had taught them how to use. They also used storage scrolls to get the tent he had, two sleeping bags, food, clothing, practically everything they needed to live on their own. So, now he was feeling anger, and a small bit of pride for the boys to be able to pull this off in one try. The worst part is, it would be a few days before Uncle Qrow would be back from his business in Atlas, so there was no way to track them.

"Dad, they left us some stuff in these boxes, I wanted to wait for you to wake up before we opened them" Yang said, putting three boxes on the table, one for each of them. It seemed that they made them together, so Taiyang decided to let them open them one at a time, first up was Ruby.

Ruby opened hers first, and by God if she wasn't crying before, she was bawling now, the first thing she noticed was the red hood. The same red hood her mother wore, the same one that they found when the search party looked in her camp on her final mission. Alex had it cleaned, and kept it hidden ever since, hell, he wouldn't let go of it when his aura activated and he went berserk on some grimm. Inside the hood was one of the kunai that Taiyang had given the boys, the ones that belonged to their birth father, with these gifts was a note.

_Dear Shortcake,_

That part was from Alex, it was his nickname for Ruby, he always doted on her because she was the youngest.

_ I know Naruto and I leaving is sudden, and I can understand you are probably upset reading this, but trust me when I say we have good intentions. We are going to become stronger so we can protect our family from everything we have thrown at us. We won't be around for a while, so we have some gifts for you. The first one is from me, which is Mom's hood. I always wanted to give it to you when you got into Beacon, so you could wear it as you became a huntress just like her. But recently, I've noticed how hard you work, and how far you've come and both of us are very proud of you, so we are giving it to you now. Wear it with pride as you train to become a huntress, and become an even stronger one than Mom, if anyone can, it's you. The second gift was from Naruto, he said it has a special seal on it, and if you focus your aura into it, you should be able to feel warmth, if you do, it means Naruto is alive. It's kind of a way for you to know he's okay. So, hopefully it can be a good weapon and hand warmer for you. With love,_

_ -Alex and Naruto_

Tears dropped on the note left by two of the people she looked up to. She always was the worst so far when it came to using a weapon or fighting hand to hand, and she was very self-conscious about it. To see that they thought she would end up better than her mother made her determined to get better, so that she wouldn't ever disappoint them.

When Yang opened her box next, it was an orange scarf that was inside, just a scarf with the note written by Naruto from the penmanship.

_Dear Yang-nee,_

_We made you the scarf together when you guys were doing your walks for the past month. It's not that we didn't want to come, it's just we thought this scarf would be something cool to remember us by because we made it. Even though we started learning how to sow from books around the same time, Alex did quite a lot of it. But once I got the hang of it on some practice stuff, I helped too. Plus, orange is awesome, and is totally your color. We'll be back one day; we are just going to be learning how to get real strong from the strongest in our generation. We can't have you catching up to us anytime soon, it would mean you might slow down, this way, you won't ever stop working hard. If you don't you won't keep up. See ya again one day love,_

_-Naruto and Alex_

Yang just smiled as she put her new favorite scarf around her neck, it felt so warm and soft, and positively stylish. She had just about cried enough, and she already knew that one day they would come back one day, stronger than ever. And they were right about one thing, she couldn't slow down, because otherwise she would be watching their backs forever. She was the oldest child of the house now, so she had to be strong, and watch out for her family until the other two men of the house came back.

Taiyang was last and when he opened up his box, it revealed just a note, which kind of made him a bit angrier because he didn't get anything.

_Dear Dad,_

_There isn't anything we can currently give you that tells you how grateful we are to you. You took us in, raised us as your own, and made us gave us a great ten plus years. We feel that as your sons, and your students, that we currently cannot give you what we want to give you. So, instead, we will make a promise. Where the place the 'greatest of our generation' currently lives, there is a yearly tournament. We are going to train, see the world, and take on that tournament, and we will give you the prize we win as a thank you for everything we've done. Thanks for everything so far, your sons_

- Naruto and Alex

"I swear I've heard that somewhere before, well, I guess Qrow can look into it, he probably knows what I am talking about. Ok girls, obviously no school today for any of us, so let's see what's on TV today, okay?" Taiyang said, trying not to sweat through his eyes from the proudness he was feeling for his sons' right about now. Until he clicked on the TV that is.

_News at 7_

_This just in from the Kingdom of Mistral as Sanctum Prodigy known as the 'greatest of her generation' Pyrrha Nikos is battling a giant King Taijitu. Normally they are around eighty feet or so in total length at full adulthood, but this one is one hundred! It has been severely weakened from other hunters and huntresses attacks, but is currently giving this girl a run for her money on top of the Great Titan Bridge. Wait, what's this, up in the sky it looks like something is falling out of the sky!_

"This can NOT be good". Taiyang said pinching the bridge of his nose, already putting two and two together.

_Currently Over the Skies of Mistral _

"Hey Naruto!" Alex said with an excited grin as he cracked his knuckles. Fully ready for a fight.

"Yes Alex?" Naruto said loading the last his ammo, locked and loaded, he put his pistol on his hip. He then began to tell the pilot to stop here. The bullhead pilot complied, and put the craft on hover mode as the two brothers eyed their prize.

"Last one down is a rotten egg!" Alex said as he flung open the door and jumped out of the bullhead, Naruto right after him.

"Okay, so I am going to need you to do some fire ninjutsu okay? I'll buy you some time, and you fry this fucker! Meanwhile, I will go after the girl who just got tossed into the ocean like a barrel of toxic waste! BANZAI!" Alex roared, as he dove straight for the water, Naruto still using his aura to ride the wind.

"Sometimes I wonder why I listen to you" Naruto deadpanned. Sometimes, he just really didn't like his brother's plans.

*SPLASH*

Alex landed straight into the water and came back up rather quickly with the aforementioned girl in his arms like a bride. He had frozen the surrounding water around them to give them a platform to stand on, even making a few icebergs to use later if need be. The girl had armor on like some kind of ancient hero, and in his opinion, she rocked it, especially with the red hair.

"Hello there" she greeted with a smile, in his opinion, one almost as cute as Yang's...almost.

"I'd love to chat, but introductions can wait until we take care of the huge snake over there.

"Sure thing, mind getting us up there, and a boost while you're at it please?" she asked politely.

"No problem!" Alex said as he clapped his hands together and the ice column they were standing on began to rise, he then began to spin around in place as fast as he could. As soon as they reached the top, Alex swung his leg from the motion of his spin so that the mystery girl used it as a kickboard and flew off it in the direction of the snake, used her spear that somehow flew to her to change to a rifle and take a few shots, before changing back to a spear and stabbing it.

Naruto used the beast's sudden shift in attention as it turned to face a pretty red haired girl to start weaving hand signs for a jutsu he had never successfully used in practice, because Taiyang said it took too long. He could do the hand signs, just not the fire.

'Snake, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger!' Naruto thought out carefully, remembering each hand sign slowly, sure not to mess up. With his signs complete he breathed a great breath through his nose, made sure to use the right amount of aura, and then!

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu! (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!)". Naruto bellowed out a fireball that Taiyang would be proud of as the white half of the king Taijitu was set ablaze, bellowing in pain before finally dying from it as all the combined attacks from the other huntsmen finally took its toll, leaving it crisp on one side.

"Alright everyone get back, I've got an idea, lead it to this side!" Alex yelled, as Naruto wove through some more hand signs to help give the beast a friendly push.

'Tiger, Ox, Dog, Rabbit, Snake!' Naruto wove through them more adamantly, wind ninjutsu felt like second nature to him, like he had been using it for years. He got through it like Alex did with Ice ninjutsu, so they could use it more efficiently and with gusto.

"Fūton: Daitoppa! (Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!)" This created a large gust of wind that pushed the beast towards Alex, and was not able to get the beast off just yet. The beast had used its fangs to bite the bridge, and create a placeholder so he wouldn't fall off. Seeing he needed a better push, Alex grabbed the beast by the fangs, and threw it up some more, making it not drag and it fell into the ocean behind him. The beast was trying to swim, but Alex was going to have none of that.

"Tiger, Bird, Monkey, Horse, Snake, Dog! Hyōton: Ikkaku Hakugei! (Ice Style: One Horned White Whale!)". A giant narwhal made of the icebergs he made came up and landed on top of the King Taijitu, sending it to the bottom of the ocean to sleep with the fishes. The civilians cheered as the menace that had already killed several huntsmen and a few civilians, not to mention destroy property and cause panic, hide finally been killed. The three huntsmen to be all met up after the hard fought battle.

"Nice work everyone, nicely done my brother" Alex offered a fist bump, when he got one back he got a "You two bro" Naruto said, exhausted. The pretty red-haired girl offered her greeting first.

"Thank you so much for helping, I'm not sure what would have happened if you didn't come, my name is Pyrrha Nikos, a pleasure to meet you both" the girl now known as Pyrrha introduced, offering a hand to each of the brothers".

Looking towards each other, they gave a firm nod and a smile, fully ready to truly begin their journey to being the best. The brothers both grabbed a hand and shook it firmly.

"I am Alex Uzumaki, and this is my younger brother Naruto Uzumaki, the pleasure is ours, I hear you are one of the strongest of our generation" Alex said as he smiled, letting her know he was just teasing.

"That's what they've said, although I haven't entered any major tournaments yet so it's not official. Speaking of which, I need to prepare for that, I was actually training when the Taijitu attacked" Pyrrha said as she put her hand to her chin, finally remembering what she was supposed to be doing in the first place.

Excitedly, Naruto offered a foxy grin, full knowing where this was going "Then boy do we have a LOT to talk about".

_**Chapter End.**_

**And with that, the prologue has come to a close. Now the real story can begin! Next time on What Makes You Human?: The Break of Dawn**

**Author's Note: Thank you all so very much for over a thousand hits on this story, it's very much appreciated. Now a few things, one, there is a poll on my profile which I would like you to vote on. It basically sets up what my next story is, a harem type, or multiple couples with no harems at all. Two, I need help. More specifically, with fight scenes, I have never really done them before and I think if I had someone who is experienced helping me, it would improve the story greatly. Please leave nice and constructive reviews, and until next time, have a good day :)**


	5. Chapter 5: The Break of Dawn

Chapter Five: The Break of Dawn

_Three years and nine months later…_

A 15 year old Ruby Rose walked down the streets of Vale's commercial district. Her weapon that she made herself, Crescent Rose, strapped to her waist, and headphones on her ears, she was going over the checklist of things she had to do before taking the last ship back to Patch.

'Okay, I library books returned,, went to the arcade, now I can check the dust shop to see if I can't get some more ammo and see if anyone has seen Naruto or Alex-nii'. As she walked into a dust shop called "From Dust till Dawn", she walked over to pick out some dust ammo, grabbing a few crystals, and she went over to the magazine rack to see if they were appearing in any again.

Since the day the boys left nearly four years ago, she always looked to see where to find them. They had seen that they started in Mistral, but they couldn't tell how long they were there for. Occasionally, the boys would be found after the tournament with pictures of their fights, and even once or twice in Atlas and Vale, but the two of them didn't seem to be in one place long for a while. Ruby missed them terribly, so did the rest of the family, but they all knew they would come back eventually. She knew they were okay because of the kunai that Naruto gave her when they left, and the one Alex gave Qrow to give to her on her birthday three months later. She was so preoccupied with the thoughts of them that she didn't hear or see incoming threat.

Roman Torchwick walked into the same store with a few guys he hired from Junior. Walking right up to the counter, with one of the guys holding a gun to his face, he tried to make conversation like it wasn't happening.

"Do you know how hard it is to find a dust shop that is open this late?" he commented sarcastically.

"Just take my lien and leave!" the shopkeep pleaded, hands in the air with a gun in his face.

"Calm down we're not here for your money…. Grab the Dust" Roman commanded his henchmen, who began to use tubes to take the dust and grabbed the crystals as the shopkeep handed them over. One henchmen in particular saw Ruby near the magazine rack and pulls out a sword.

"Alright kid, hands where I can see 'em" he yelled. No response.

"You gotta death wish or something?" he threatens as he pulls her hood off and turns her around.

"Huh?" she asks, seeing the guy point to her headphones, she takes them off her head and puts them around her neck. "Can I help you?" Ruby asks, kind of annoyed she was interrupted while listening to her jam, which to her was her theme song. It was like, it was written for her.

"Yeah, I said hands where I can see them!" he angrily yells.

"Are...are you robbing me?"

"Yes!" he retorted back, man are kids stupid he thought.

"Oh…"

About four seconds later, that same henchmen was seen flying out the door of the place. Another henchmen seeing Ruby with her weapon in gun mode, pointed one at her, only to get kicked out of the building through the window. Torchwick and the others just saw a girl standing there with a scythe taking shape over her shoulder, looking at them with a smirk. She then pulls her scythe over and lands the bigger blade onto the pavement, while at the same time taking her headphones off her head and clicking them off. Roman looked at her dumbfounded before commanding his boys to attack.

"Ok...get her" was Roman's command as the four remaining henchmen came at her with swords, guns, and axes in hand. The first one charged at her, but Ruby just used the end of her scythe in the pavement as a center so she could use the other end to swing around and land a double kick in his chest. Using the momentum, she swung Crescent Rose out of the ground and had it behind her back with the remaining three punks behind her.

Shooting in the direction she was facing, she spun around and used the momentum to send the next guy that charged her flying, ending by using the back blades to knock the third guy into the pavement. Not even a second later, she used her speed semblance to dodge the incoming rain of bullets the last remaining henchmen pelted at her.

Once she was facing him directly, she fired a bullet to charge the final man. Hitting him up into the air, she used the scythe to stop herself by dragging it into the pavement. Because she suddenly stopped the scythe into the ground, she herself was thrown into the air, but she swung herself around, with Crescent Rose still in the ground, to move herself towards the enemy that was falling back to the ground. Once she was close enough, she pulled Crescent Rose out of the ground, swung it around her body and slammed it into the falling henchmen, right at Torchwick's feet, herself landing around ten feet in front of him.

"You were worth every cent, truly you were" Roman said sarcastically as he took a look at the girl in front of him, taking the cigar out of his mouth. "Well, "Red," I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening. And as much as I'd love to stick around, I'm afraid **this** is where we part ways…" Roman said with emphasis as he pulled out his cane, and used it to fire out a large fire dust round at Ruby, who turned her weapon facing down to shoot the ground, letting her jump over it with ease. When Ruby looked up, Roman was nowhere to be seen. Looking around, she saw him climbing a ladder on a nearby building.

"You okay if I go after him?" Ruby asked after checking the shopkeep, getting a nod of confirmation, she ran over to the bottom of the building and shot the ground to boost herself on top of the building. Calling to him to stop, she yelled "Hey!"

"Persistent" Roman mumbled, really finding this little girl annoying. As Ruby was getting in a more battle ready stance, a Bullhead suddenly came up and shined a light right in Ruby's eyes, trying to cover them, she saw Roman had already boarded it. "End of the line "Red"!" Roman yelled as he tossed a fire dust crystal at Ruby, landing right in front of her. She tried to step back to avoid the shot that she knew would come, but he fired faster, a lady in a white dress shirt and a black business skirt wearing a purple cape came out to try to intercept the attack, but wasn't fast enough. Ruby thought she was toast.

"Katon: Kajinheki (Fire Style: Fire Wall)!" Just when Ruby and the mystery woman thought she was toast, a wall of fire pops up a few feet in front of the Dust crystal, before the woman used what seemed to be something close to Telekinesis to move the crystal out of the way, before looking to see what caused the wall.

A young faunus man with long orange rabbit ears and a long and fluffy fox tail was sitting on the corner of the rooftop that they were on. He was wearing a long sleeve black turtleneck shirt, with some orange pants and an orange hoodie. He also wore black fingerless gloves with a metal plate on the backside of his hands. The boy had a pistol strapped to his belt, along with a small pouch at his side, and a sword in his right hand that by looking at the extra parts it had, seemed to have another form. Covering his face was a white mask that looked like a fox, but was open around the mouth area, with a red outline covering the mouth. Finishing off his look were some combat shoes seen from shinobi of old, open at the toes.

Roman, not liking what he saw, went up to the pilot, a young woman, and yelled over the engine sound "We got a huntress and a masked man that can shoot fire!". Getting up from her seat as the pilot and handing it off to Roman, while she went to deal with the two new problems off the side of her ship.

"I don't know what you came here for young man, but if you're going to be here, then help me take down this ship!" the woman commanded, as she used purple dust to launch an omnidirectional attack on the ship, while the masked teenager used another fire attack.

"Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu! (Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!)". A rain of fire tried to pelt the ship after the woman's successful strike on it, but it was met with a fire attack from inside the ship, from a silhouette in a woman's shape, all they could see were the amber colored eyes from the inside, bright, yet dark and foreboding. The woman who used the fire launched another counter by firing a blast of fire dust at the woman in the cape, who simply flipped backwards with ease, before returning fire by creating a thunderstorm above the ship, which was trying to escape, but couldn't due to being pelted by thunder and ice shards raining from the clouds. That is until the mystery woman used another fire attack, being blocked with an aura shield, only for the remaining fragments to be used as a base for another fire attack, which caused a huge fire pillar to erupt from under her. Again, easily dodged, but it caused the thunderclouds to dissipate from above the ship, and being to take off, but being there was still lightning dust residue on the Bullhead, the masked man decided to make one last attack before it could get away.

"Raiton: Jibashi! (Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder!)". The attack caused a chain lightning effect which went from his hands through the air, and electrocuted the Bullhead, damaging it, not enough to stop it because of the distance and lack of strength in the conductor, but enough to get the message. The Bullhead flew off into the night, with the mystery woman glaring at it as it left the horizon.

"You're a huntress...can I have your autograph!?" Ruby fangirled out, finally speaking after being silent watching the entire battle, not much she could do, I mean, if the people in that ship could block fire, no way would her sniper bullets do any good.

Ruby looked at the masked teenager before calling out to him.

"N-Naruto? Is that you?" she called, hopeful that it was him. The teen turned around, and pulled off his mask, revealing the tan, whisker covered face she missed so much, so much in fact, that she began to tear up.

"Hey Ruby, how ya been?" Naruto replied with his trademark foxy grin, she missed that the most, his smile, it was something that kept her feeling safe no matter what situation they were in. She ran up to him and tackled him into a hug.

"I..we missed you so much!" Ruby cried a bit into his warm chest, he just kept his smile as he petted her head to calm her down. The woman in the business suit saw the moment, and told her to meet her down at the bottom when she was finished, letting the touching reunion continue.

"I missed my best friend too. I can't tell you too much right now, I have to leave real soon, but once I get the chance, I've got so many stories for you, Alex and I both". Ruby giggled, before hopping off, already knowing that he probably had something to do if he was in Vale to begin with.

"You know, even though you say I'm your best friend, we never did come up with a combo name for us back when we were training together. And if I ever get paired with you for a mission one day, I need to know what to call out". It was Naruto's turn to laugh at Ruby's hobbit to name the tag teams they set up, so far everyone in the family had one but Ruby and himself together. But he already had one prepared.

"Well, considering I am just about to start a new era, seemingly both of us are, I think we should have a name that fits both our theme, and our colors. Which is why I think our name should be Akatsuki, or Dawn. A new light on a new day, of a new adventure, sound good?" Naruto asked, providing the family symbol for an okay, a fist bump. Without even giving a second thought, she gave one back, saying "I guess in a way, you could say this is the break of dawn?"

"Well, I guess you could Ruby" Naruto said with a smile. He then pulled his fist back, looked at her, and took off, leaving Ruby to her thoughts about tonight.

The next thing Ruby knew, she was being lectured about how she was putting people, including herself in danger, and that she wasn't going to forget this, or that her actions would have consequences and all that jargon. Frankly, it wasn't on Ruby's mind right now, what was on her mind was Naruto, why was he here, was Alex here too, where have they been? So many questions, but she was pulled out of them when the lady who introduced herself earlier as Glynda Goodwitch, introduced someone to her.

"BUT, there is someone here who would like to meet you" Glynda sighed, walking towards the side wall, with her scroll in hand, as a man carrying a plate of cookies walked in the door...she liked the man already.

"Ruby Rose" he said as he got a closer look into her eyes "you...have silver eyes" he said pulling back, creeping Ruby out to say the least.

"So, where did you learn to do this?" he motioned with the coffee mug in his other hand towards the scroll Goodwitch had which showed security camera footage of Ruby beating the crap out of Torchwick's hired guns.

"Uhh, Signal Academy?" she replied, trying to avoid the question. She wasn't sure how much trouble Qrow could be in if she told that he personally taught her how to wield a scythe, or if Alex and Naruto, whom she didn't know what they were up to, taught her the acrobatic skills needed to do that.

"Really? They taught you to use of one the most dangerous weapons ever designed?" he asked with a bit of sass in his voice. Ruby looked between him and the scary older woman who was giving her a glare that said, 'we will find out, so better tell us now', and decided it was time to spill it.

"Well, one teacher in particular" she was going to continue, but he knowingly said I see" while putting the plate of cookies down. Scratch that, telling on her loved ones could wait until after snacks. I mean, they were one of the foods of the Gods, ramen being up there with it. She munched on those cookies at break neck speed, trying to remember to chew between each one.

"It's just that I've only seen a scythe wielder of that skill before, a dusty old crow" the older gentleman said, looking back as if remembering nostalgic memories.

After remembering what Alex had taught her about not speaking with her mouth open, and how he reprimanded Naruto if he did it, especially in front of elders, she remembered to swallow before commenting.

"Oh, that's my Uncle Qrow! He's a teacher at Signal, for the most part I was complete garbage before he" she stopped to giggle "took me under his wing". If there was one thing Alex and Yang left an imprint on her with, it was their puns, their **really** bad puns. She only made them when neither of them were present, feeling that they would be upset at the missed opportunities.

"Well what is a cute young girl like you doing at a school designed to train warriors?" the man asked, trying to bring the conversation back to the original point he wanted to bring it to when coming here. Ruby looked down at herself, remembering all the things that have happened in the past four years, which changed her original answer from when the boys were still at home.

"Well, I want to be a huntress" was her serious reply to the man's question, her face more determined and serious than in recent memory.

"You want to slay monsters?"

"Well, yeah, I have two more years left at Signal before I apply to Beacon. My older sister is going there this year and I really want to go there with her one day. But I want to help people, I want to protect the world, and...I want to show that the faith put in me by the ones who went ahead wasn't wasted" Ruby told them, reminiscing about how she would look at the note that her heroes left for her when they left home whenever she doubted herself during training.

"Ahh yes, I remember hearing something about that. The Uzumaki brothers Alex and Naruto correct? Yes, they told me a bit about the note they left for you" The man said with a smirk, knowing it would instantly draw her attention.

It did work instantly, because as soon as she heard those names, her head shot up and looked at the man with wide eyes. "You know them!? Do you know where they are right now? Have they been okay? How do you know them!?"

"Alright, alright, calm down would you? I know it's hard to hear the news on them because they're faunus, but with my sources, I know for a fact that those two are co-winners along with one other individual to win the Mistral Regional Team Tournament for the past four years straight. I came to them during the past tournament and offered them a place at my school. You do know who I am correct?"

"Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy. You mean that they're coming HERE!? TO BEACON!? And wait...they actually won the tournament!? Really?" Ruby shouted gleefully, as it seemed that they had accomplished what they wanted, which meant they might come home! Professor Ozpin couldn't help but laugh at the young girl's happiness as he chimed in.

"I should think so, I assume the reason Naruto helped was because he saw you in trouble and came rushing, and fled quickly after because Alex was waiting. I contacted them when they reached Vale, and they said they had friends that let them stay the night, and that they found another applicant and let that person stay with them. He probably borrowed the mask from Alex, all things considered" Ozpin explained.

Ruby looked confused at that last part, "All what things considered?" Ruby asked, Ozpin quickly realizing his mistake changed the subject.

"That's not important right now, however, I have an offer for you. How would you like to come to Beacon? I'm sure Naruto and Alex would love seeing you there as a little added surprise. I will warn you though, they will not be in the normal transport, and they will arrive at initiation for their own roles. They will be paired up with a team of two, how they will be paired will be explained later, but basically, it will be a case of one team of six or two teams of five, so whaddya say Ruby? Want to come to Beacon?" Ozpin asked, fully knowing the answer.

"Absolutely!" Ruby fired in a determined voice, finally, after so long, they could be one big, happy family again. As Ruby jumped for joy, and Glynda groaned over having to do more paperwork, Ozpin looked lost deep in thought.

'Boy Alex, I sure hope you know how you're going to handle this'.

_**Chapter End.**_

**Ruby is going into Beacon! And Naruto and Ruby get their combo! And what's up with Alex? Next time on What Makes You Human?: The Darkest Hour Is Just Before Dawn**

**A/N: Thank you everyone for over 2,000 hits, 35 followers, 25+ favorites, and a few reviews. It means quite a lot, I would like everyone to keep in mind that I am still a novice fanfic writer, so bare with me on some cases, don't be afraid to say something in the reviews if you don't like something or don't understand. I have also decided what my next story is, but I need to wait till I get to a certain part of this one before posting it. So yeah, look forward to that, until next time, have a great day :)**


	6. Chapter 6: The Darkest Hour?

Chapter Six: The Darkest Hour is Just Before Dawn

_A Few Days Earlier in Forever Fall_

In a forest of red leaved trees, looking up at the late summer sky, a young woman remembered the beginning line of the poem she wrote about her teacher.

"_Your hopes have become my burden. I will find my own liberation."_

The woman was Blake Belladonna, a Faunus that worked for the White Fang, not that she was very proud of that fact as of late. Her teacher, Adam Taurus, who taught her everything she knew about swordsmanship, was becoming something unpleasant, a monster. That's why today was the last mission, the day where she would leave the White Fang in order to find her own path in life. She wanted equal rights between Humans and Faunus alike, but didn't want lives to be taken because of it. But seeing how Adam was known for not giving a shit for innocent lives, or those that were against the cause, she brought backup. A Faunus around the same age as her that had been working with the White Fang for about two years, whom little knew his face because of the ever present mask he wore, he just went by the nickname the world had given him 'The Phantom of the Howling Snow'.

The Phantom looked like Adam similarly, but with a shinobi take on it. He wore black strapped up sandals, with black bandages around his lower legs that went up to his knees, wearing black pants that were rolled up a bit to go just below his knees, with some wrappings around his right thigh and a pouch on top of that. On his torso he wore a long sleeve sky blue shirt that covered up to the top of his neck. Over that was his coat, which was similar to Adam's, except on the back he had his symbol. She once asked about it and he said it was a camellia flower, with a long stem, and on each side of that stem, was a wolf in a way that made it look like a leaf, on the other side, similarly was a leopard, the entire design in a sky blue looking color. His look finished with back fingerless gloves with metal plates on the back of them and a wolf looking mask, with blue lines on it.

There were only two people who actually knew his identity, Adam, who invited him into the White Fang because of his fighting prowess, and herself, having won the honor of knowing the identity of the White Fang's most mysterious Captain in a contest of skills administered by the Phantom himself. His true name...was Alex Uzumaki, a half arctic wolf, half snow leopard Faunus that had very similar ideals towards the world as she did. She had worked with him and Adam together for about year and a half before she learned his identity, and he always tried to stop Adam from killing people that didn't need to die, and it would usually end up in a deadly spar, which had totaled up to about nearly 500 spars in two years.

"Blake, let's get going" Alex called from behind, his voice taking Blake from her thoughts. The two interacted on a friendly basis, Alex liked her views and her way of sticking to them, even if it meant making enemies out of the White Fang. They were friendly enough to call each other by name when they were on missions or alone.

"Sure thing Alex, where's Adam?" Blake asked, getting up from the rock that had been her seat for the last 20 minutes of waiting for the target.

"He is waiting up ahead at the top of the cliff, he said the train was coming and we needed to move, let's hurry" Alex said before the two of them dashed off to meet with Adam. When they got there, they watched over the cliff as the train carrying a couple squadrons worth of Atlesian Knight-130's for Vale's military and loads of Dust and other Schnee products. If Vale got ahold of them, they could be a much bigger threat to the White Fang, the orders were to make sure it doesn't get there, by whatever means possible.

"Let's do this" Adam simply said as all three operatives jumped off the edge and began falling off the cliff before landing about halfway down the slope, sliding down before jumping onto the fast moving train. Using their swords as an anchor to stay on, they were able to begin the operation.

"I'm going to check ahead and see if I can't disable some of the drones, they may have some of the spider models, with this tracker, I can find and disable it" Alex said pulling out a device from his coat pocket. A Schnee guard tracker, given usually to those who were in charge of security, so they could know where the guard drones were at all time. They were given one because one of Alex's sources knew the shipment would carry newer models, so he needed to find it and disable it before things got hairy.

Getting a nod from his two accomplices, he walked forward with the scanner setting turned to 'Spider Droid'. Blake and Adam went down below to deal with the AT-130's. Alex saw there were a few on the next car, and using his semblance, he was able to run past them faster than they could detect them, let Adam and Blake worry about them, he had his own reasons for tagging along on this mission, and he didn't have time to waste, by the time he got on top, of the second car, he could hear gunshots, meaning Blake and Adam had started fighting, he didn't have much time.

The scanner picked up a signal, he was right on top of a Spider Droid. Drawing out Tsubaki from her sheath, he put the scanner to the roof of the car, the loudest beep was where the core was. It started beeping really loud, so he put the scanner back in his coat pocket, before grabbing Tsubaki by her handle and stabbed the roof of the car, he could hear the Droid deactivating and falling down to the bottom. Happy with the result he got, Alex crouched down and with his right hand, placed his thumb, pointer, and middle finger on the surface, while holding the other two back into his palm, and made half a Tiger hand sign with his left hand.

"Ice Style: Ice Prison!" Normally, that makes a shield for himself or a prison for someone else, it allows him to use his aura to freeze an object solid. He got up and kicked the frozen roof in, breaking it, which allowed him to get inside. He looked around the cargo, opening a box, he smiled under his mask when he found what he was looking for. He pulled out a sealing scroll from his coats inside pocket, and rolled out on the ground. Using a Tiger hand sign, he sealed the entire cargo box into it, it could carry a few more, so he picked it up, rolled it up a little so he could see how many he had left. After taking a few whole cargo boxes filled with Dust in crystal form and some materials he could use for building weapons, he rolled up the scroll, finally finished when he heard Adam and Blake open the door behind him.

"Well about time you guys got here, I was starting to get worried you were having trouble with a couple of old modeled drones" Alex said with heavy sarcasm in his voice. It was one of his favorite things to do while working, making snide and sarcastic comments.

"You could have helped you know, then we wouldn't have had to do things the hard way" Adam said with annoyance, walking over to one of the crates, looking for the cargo they were supposed to be looking for.

"Don't be so dramatic" Alex told him flatly.

"That's exactly what I told him" Blake added in with a small smile, while she wasn't going to miss Adam's attitude and way of doing things, he would miss the way all three of them interacted with their witty banter, it made some missions a lot more fun when they had their share of dull ones, which they have had many times in the near two years they have been working together.

"If you two are done ganging up on me, I found the target cargo, I'll set up the charges over here, you two head over to the next car and set the rest of them up" Adam retorted.

"What about the crew members?" Blake pleaded

"What about them?" was her only response from Adam. It was all going according to plan. Alex and Blake both knew that he wouldn't care about the crew members, and they had every intention of ditching him and leaving him behind so that he wouldn't be near the human crew. They still had to act like they would normally or risk Adam suspecting their plot.

"Come on Blake, I'll go find as many as I can before we blow it and I'll just knock them off the train, let's not waste too much time" Alex said like it was scripted, too easy.

The two of them got outside to the open carts, before shutting the door behind them and making a dash for the next cart, then they could cut the cord connecting them from Adam's side, and they could make an escape fairly easily. Adam was fast, but he couldn't outrun the train, especially if they just cut a huge chunk of the weight from it. Blake jumped across, before the door in Adam's car flew open, showing Adam with his sword Wilt drawn, with Blush ready to fire.

"What's wrong Adam? Need more charges or something?" Alex said with a poker faced tone, but he had a look of worry behind his mask. It would be not a smart idea to fight Adam here, and he couldn't use his Awakened State either because when it does activate, the power boost generates a bit of lightning, which he couldn't risk setting off the charges, especially when all three of the people here had charges on them, it would kill all three of them.

"Did you really think I wouldn't notice? Blake seemed to give up arguing with me about killing the Humans fairly easily, I don't need you two fucking with me, so I'm going to need for you to just complete the mission and come along quietly, I don't want to have to hurt you!" Adam yelled the last words as he charged Blake, running straight passed Alex and before he slashed down, Alex managed to get in between them, and slash Adam's leg with a deep cut, before Adam countered by slashing down and striking Alex straight in the torso from the left shoulder to the right side of his ribcage. Coughing up blood, he managed to kick Adam back, before jumping back to the cart Blake was on.

"DO IT NOW BLAKE!" Alex yelled in pain, as Blake managed to cut the cable connecting the two cars, Alex meanwhile tossed a charge at the top of the fast approaching tunnel, and when the two of them went under it, Alex blew the charge, collapsing the front of the tunnel behind them.

Blake quickly took Alex's mask off so he could breathe easier and then started to try to apply pressure to Alex's wound, trying to at least stop the bleeding. Alex took her hand off, and shook his head.

"What are you doing!? I have to stop the bleeding otherwise you'll die!" Blake yelled angrily. Alex got up, and took off his coat, took out another storage seal from his back pocket and put in in there. Once that was done, he took off his shirt and began to use it to wipe the blood off his chest, which led to Blake being mouth agape for two reasons.

One, he had a fairly nice build. Ever since his departure from Patch, Alex and Naruto both had trained extensively with some of the best, including Pyrrha and her family, which meant Alex was in peak physical condition, tanned, nice pecs, six pack, the works, he still had his scars from when the Beowulf clawed him when he saved Yang and when he took a sword for Ruby, and now he had a third one right across his torso, which lead to the second reason she had her mouth agape.

The wound had already scarred, the blood stopped, he was still in pain because the aura Adam used in that attack broke a few ribs, and may have slashed an organ or two, the organs would be fine, but the bones would take a few days to heal, a week if they were really that bad. Naruto had much better of a healing factor, he could fix broken bones in a few hours, and even damage to an organ wouldn't stop him, something Alex wished he had. He still had a much better tolerance for pain and could heal faster than normal Humans or Faunus, but nowhere near Naruto's level.

"It's fine *pant* *pant* I have a good healing rate, in a few days I should be fine, I know someone that is a doctor that can fix me up for little price, and can set us up with a place to crash for a few days, just until we report to Beacon" Alex said as he held his side in pain, yeah, he would need some rest, Adam could cut through metal, his ribs really hurt, because the broken bits may have hurt something else too.

"If you say so...you said you weren't going on the first shuttle right, that you would show up at initiation though?" Blake asked with a concerned look.

"That's what Ozpin told me to do, now remember, you can't tell what my role is, so keep it on the DL. Oh, and don't say anything about my friends either, unless I introduce whatever team you're on to them, they don't like attention more than they need to have. Now, as soon as we get out of the tunnel, we'll be less than a mile outside of the city of Vale, we'll jump off early as to not raise suspicion. Adam can't follow us with the cut I gave his leg, so we can go at a reasonable pace" Alex told Blake. Getting a nod, he just leaned against one of the cargo boxes to rest for a second.

_About 35 minutes later in Vale's Upper Class District_

"So you're friends live here? In the richest part of Vale? I am really starting to feel uncomfortable about who your friends are now. How do you know them exactly?" Blake asked with a nervous look around, rich people usually didn't like Faunus, and while she was hidden by her bow, Alex still had his ears out.

"I fought against them in the Mistral Regional Tournament a few years ago, one's a technical genius and can do quite a lot with computers and machine parts, and she is a good therapist. The other one is a great doctor and masseuse, for the most part she only treats women though, my brother and I being the only two exceptions" Alex said as he leaned into Blake. She currently had his arm draped over her shoulder so he could stand properly, injuring himself a bit more on the landing from jumping off a moving train. They were up to the gate of one of the richest homes in the area.

It looked like a Beach mansion from the outside, even had a pool, and since Vale City was warm practically all year round except for winter, plus it was on a port city, so the ocean wasn't far off. Blake was staring at it wondering who could afford to live here, when she saw Alex enter in a code from the number pad on the gate, when he got it right, one green light appeared, and then he pulled out a card which was tied around his neck and swiped it through a slot, making the second light turn green and open the door. Alex took his arm off Blake and started to walk towards the front door, Blake following up the rear, with the gate closing behind them.

Once Alex and Blake opened the door inside, two young women about their age were waiting there for them at the stairwell with faces saying they were not too pleased. It really would look a lot more intimidating if they weren't in swimsuits looking like they just were about to go into the pool.

"So Alex, getting into trouble again are we? I see you've already got a new scar, and from your way of walking you are really feeling it. How many times are you going to hurt yourself doing that work?" the blue haired girl spoke up, walking over to him, she checked his injury out to get a closer look.

"That should be the last one for a while Hinata-chan, me and Blake here were able to get out of there leaving Adam behind to deal with only half a train's worth of cargo to go by, the rest of it made it into the station" Alex said, motioning his hand towards Blake, who just waved with an awkward smile. She wasn't a very social person, and meeting new people just wasn't something she enjoyed doing often.

"I assume you got what I asked? The Dust, and the Aura Armor and machine parts?" the platinum blonde girl asked with a bit more of a happier expression, like she was happy to see him.

"Of course Ino, it's in my coat pocket, which is in this scroll, just do my cut the usual way please" he said with a soft smile of his own, handing her the scroll he used earlier from his back pocket.

"Thank you. So, this is the girl you met in the 'book store'? I didn't expect Adam's apprentice to be about our age.

"Yep this is her" Alex said with a smile. He then turned to Blake and showed his hands to the two beautiful young women beside him.

"Blake, the blue haired one with the lavender bikini is Hinata Ranbenda, from the famous family of doctors I'm sure you've heard about" he pointed out while Hinata puffed out her pretty large chest out in pride. Frankly it was almost, or as big as Yang's current chest that he saw from the picture Qrow gave him in March, which was around at least a D.

"And this girl with the platinum blonde hair in the white bikini is Ino Schnee, I really shouldn't have to explain" Alex said with a nervous look on his face. Blake just looked surprised that a Faunus would willingly bring another Faunus to a Schnee. Or that he was friends with one on top of that, but she did remember hearing about one Schnee that liked Faunus from a magazine once, so maybe it wasn't a lie.

"Nice to meet you" the two of them said at the same time, offering a small bow. Which freaked Blake out a bit to see any Schnee bow.

"So you said you met at a tournament right? Is it really okay for us to crash here?" Blake said with a worried tone.

"Sure thing, we've got more than enough space, and any friend to Alex is a friend to us. Don't worry, we know most of the situation, so just don't worry, rest up, and stay here before you have to go to Beacon in a few days. Naruto is already here Alex, he is out on patrol right now, Qrow told him Ruby would be in Vale City any day now so he wants to make sure she is okay, not that you can protest with your injury." Ino said with a small wave of her hand. She then walked out of the entrance hall with Hinata to count her profit. Not forgetting to add a bit of sway in her step, taking a look back at Alex before she left the room.

"So...you two just friends?" Blake asked with a raised eyebrow, that wasn't what 'just friends' did, no they had to be at least somewhat closer than that.

"Well...we have history, and I'll leave it to that. I am going to upstairs to my usual room, there is a guest room right next to it, so you can stay there. Hinata will probably check me out for any damage and such later, so I'll be fine" Alex said heading up the grand stairwell with Blake following suit.

"You know" he said stopping. "We've been working together for a while now, and we don't have a combo name. If we become partners, get on the same team, or whatever, we'll need one to call out combo attacks" Alex said, remembering how much Ruby made it a big deal that they all had combo names when they trained, so that they could get out of the way and have a plan for certain situations.

"Okay…" Blake said with a raised eyebrow, put off by the sudden odd question. She thought about it for a minute, before grinning and giving her idea.

"Yozora" she said simply.

"Night Sky? Kinda dark, I know you wear black and all, but any particular reason why?" Alex said looking back at her.

"Well, it's said that the darkest hour is just before dawn. That means that there is hope even in the darkest moments in life. The White Fang may eventually come after us, and the Humans don't like us Faunus right now, but I believe one day, that we will be able to walk side by side with them as friends. We just need to hope that it will happen, and that way, even if there is the biggest war in the history of Remnant between the two races, the chance of peace won't be at absolute zero" Blake explained with a small smile on her face, she loved talking about her goals. It was something she took pride in when she talked about her beliefs, and Alex knew that ever since Adam first told him about her. Alex knew that there would be many more trials and tribulations before true peace was achieved, but he wanted to achieve it, so did Blake, so did Naruto. He also knew he hasn't even started the process to peace in reality. But the starting line, was just a week away.

Chapter End.

_**A/N: Well, six chapters down, and Alex and Blake get a combo of their own? What will the others think when they learn of Alex's old 'job'? Also, Ino and Hinata make it on the scene!? What are their roles you may ask? You'll find out eventually. Oh, btw, I also have a canon following (and not so great) pilot chapter out for another story called "Naruto The New Sky Dragon". The sad part is, it has more reviews and favorites in less than four days than this story has had in two months! I was considering not continuing, but with the attention it has brought me, I feel like I have to continue it. I will probably rewrite the first chapter eventually too. Another thing, I wasn't sure if fairy tail dragon slayer read my stuff, the review he left on Sky Dragon confirms that he has at least looked. He also gave me a bit of advice of the back and forth PMs we exchanged, so thank you for that. Remember to leave reviews, check out my other story, and have a nice day!**_


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